Voices of Crimson Dragons and Apathetic Spirits
by TheVoiceOfNearSanity
Summary: When I died, I did not expect to become someone's personal mental advisor, much less the advisor of a perverted high schooler in a world full of the supernatural. Join me and Ddraig as we advise our host in his quest to become the harem king. SI Fic with a twist. Slightly less perverted Issei, Isseixharem, rated M to be safe.
1. Introduction Part 1

My first thought upon awakening was 'ow'. My second thought was 'Asshole didn't even try to stop'. Once the standard thoughts had been exhausted and my brain resumed its processing, my third thought was 'Where am I?', an acceptable thought, seeing as I was floating in a black void in front of what appeared to be a holographic chatroom.

EL-Greetings Oblivi Solus. Welcome to your new life.

Huh. So I died. I really should be panicking more, but for the life of me I cannot do it.

EL-You likely have many questions, so allow me to explain. Yes, you died in a car crash in your home dimension. Multiverse theory is real, and I am Evan Lagrange, a lesser entity of great power that has taken to managing some of the multiverse for fun. You may reply by thinking your statement, then thinking 'Post'.

OS- Ok, think I've got the hang of this. So, what happens now? What do you want from a recently deceased engineering student? And why do I feel so calm?

EL- That is simple. I am going to insert you into one of the many fictional universes you have read about, not as a character, mind you, but more like Navi.

OS- An annoying shit who provides useless advice and pesters the main character endlessly?

EL- Considering you are a sentient being and significantly more intelligent, no. You are to be a voice of reason to the main character, helping them avoid the occasional plot hole and get through their story in a different manner than canon. In addition, you will not be a physical being, but rather a soul bound to the mind of the main character, able to exist in their mindscape and teach them from there. Each time a universe concludes, you will return here and be prepared for your next task. Finally, I took the liberty of inhibiting your emotions for a bit to help you acclimate to your new job, don't worry about it.

Ignoring that last bit about emotion limiting, I decided to jump right in.

OS- So where am I going for my first mission?

EL- Not telling! :) Bye!

With those words, light began to engulf my body and I felt myself being pulled away through the void. As I settled in for the trip, I allowed myself some reflection. "Ok, Sol, it appears some random being has decided you will make an excellent tutorial NPC for some poor soul in a work of fiction. With any luck you'll be sent somewhere nice and easy to start, like _How to Train Your Dragon,_ or _Tang_ aaaaah!"

* * *

 ***CRASH***

"Oooooowww". How the hell is empty void able to hurt so much? Seriously, if I wasn't a construct similar to the gamer, I would have probably broken something.

"Who's there?"

"Um, Hi."

"Who are you?"

"Oblivi Solus, interdimensional butt monkey, and apparently your new voice of reason and mental advisor. Hold on one second."

I began to focus on creating a platform, pulling on essences I somehow now knew how to manipulate to form a small platform in the inky void, upon which projections of my host's body and I appeared. My host appeared to be a young boy, somewhere between seven and ten, with a lanky build, brown eyes, and spiky brown hair. My own body was taller, almost six feet, with a heavier build, both in terms of fat and muscle, and possessed curly hair instead, with the hair color and that of my eyes being brown.

"There, now we can talk to each other face to face, what's your name kid?"

"I-Issei Hyoudou…, where are we?"

"Son of a bitch I'm in the DxD universe", I muttered. High School DxD was an interesting universe, but the power creep was absurd, and I clearly had my work cut out for me.

"What?"

I waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Ok, now let me explain what I am and where we are. I'm a dead soul who has been assigned the task of helping certain people achieve their dreams by teaching them everything they need to know and guiding them on their journey, and you're one of those people. Right now, we're in a construct I created in your mind so that we could see each other face to face."

Iseei decided to give me his best attempt at the incredulous look. Which was incredulous, as it should be.

"I'm serious kid, I really am a trans-dimensional advisor genie. So kid, tell me your dream, and I'll tell you how to get there."

Issei smirked at me and said in that tone kids shift to when they think you're messing with them, "Really? Well if you're soooo smart and really that good, help me become the Harem King."

"…"

Issei's face lit up in an expression of smug satisfaction.

"Ha! I knew you had no clue, you're just a voice in my dream!"

My brain finally allowed enough processing for me to start speaking again and I got a quick statement out.

"Give me a minute."

Issei's face shifted to a certain degree of shock, "M-m-mr. Solus?"

Wow. They weren't kidding when they said Issei was perverted from a young age. Seriously, what the hell is with this universe? Anyways, building a harem ought to be fun, and I'm not going to complain too much seeing as I did have some of the same ideas, albeit when I was in my late teens and not when I was seven. Anyways, let's get the exposition out of the way and get started.

"Ok Issei, I've got a bit of a plan, but first allow me to elaborate a bit more on the current situation. You see I come from a reality where yours is a work of fiction…"

* * *

-Thirty Minutes later.

…And that's basically everything you need to know, any questions?"

Issei just stood there, staring at me blankly.

"I'm sorry, but could you please say that again? I'm starting to believe you, because I know I've never heard some of the words you just said.", he softly asked.

Ok, buffy speak time.

"You have a dragon in your left arm that gives you superpowers. Every mythology is real and is active in your world. I'm from a different world and saw your current future there."

"Oh"

Cue freakout in three, two, one…

"Aaaaaaaaaah!"

Issei began running around the small plane in a blind panic, screaming the usual statements such as, "It's not real", "This is just a dream", and my personal favorite "Get it off, Get it off, GET IT OFF!", while flailing his arm around. After about five minutes of letting him try and get it out of his system on his own, I finally sighed, walked up to him and grabbed him by the collar.

"No, it is real, and you can't remove the dragon, it's bound to your soul. Now calm down and let me get explaining everything you need to know."

Issei slowly slid to the floor and sat down, with myself following him shortly after. I pulled up a white panel next to us and began projecting images onto it.

"Ok Issei, you want a harem, right? Then you're going to have to put in a lot of hard work for it, because nothing comes free in this world and a harem is not cheap. You're going to need many things if you want one, specifically, strength, intellect, and charisma."

As I spoke the three words appeared on top the tablet, with lines between them, forming three labeled columns.

"Strength is how you protect your harem, if you're weak, then others will attack you or your harem and hurt them. Do you want your harem to be in pain and sad Issei?"

Issei's face went bone-white and he exclaimed with pure shock, "No! Why would I want that?"

A satisfied smile crept over my face, "Almost nobody does, but others will see your harem and will be jealous. They might be jealous of the fact that you can get girls, they might be obsessive over one of your lovers, they might just hate you and decide to attack you by attacking your harem. No matter the reason, you have to be powerful enough to protect them, otherwise, they'll have no reason to stick around. No matter how suave, intelligent, or rich you are. Or maybe one of your girls has an enemy from their past that you need to fight off, and since the supernatural exists, you might need to be powerful enough to fight god-level ex-boyfriends to keep them safe."

I gestured to the board and words began to appear under the strength column. I decided to have a little fun and so I summoned a pair of glasses and a wooden pointer, before resuming my speech.

"For you, your strength comes from three areas, your physical capabilities, your sacred gear mastery, and your magical expertise. Your physical abilities are things like your physical strength, mastery of combat arts, durability, speed and agility. These physical stats can be further boosted by the second category, your mastery of your sacred gear, the Boosted Gear. In essence, the Boosted Gear is the soul of a dragon bound to yours which allows you to double your power every ten seconds, and if manipulate that power. We'll get started on booting that up shortly, after the lecture has concluded. Finally, due to the supernatural nature of your future opponents, you will need to develop some talent in the magical arts. Human magic is primarily equation based, but we might be able to give you dragon magic, which is a bit easier to learn, but focuses on flame and wind spells. Spells help out due to their exponential growth, as opposed to the more linear growth of physical abilities, and their versatility."

Issei was looking a bit lost by this point, but appeared to be processing everything I just said at a steady rate. Once he seemed to start getting the gist of what I said, I tapped the second column.

"Ok, Issei, I'm going to move on to the intellect column, you good to go?" Iseei nodded in affirmation, so I straightened up and started talking again.

"Intellect is the second area you need to work in, and like strength, I'm going to break it down into three aspects, application, intelligence, and wisdom. Application is how you apply your mental abilities to the real world, and is the reason for this category to exist. You need to be smart to build the support networks required for a harem, as such a system is expensive and complicated."

Issei was looking at me funny by this point, although what normal child wouldn't be if you tried teaching them economics and finance. I decided to try and simplify my speech further.

"Let me put it this way, the minimum size for a harem is three members, and if we assume that you have a kid with each of them, that means you have three kids. The average cost to raise a child from birth to 17 years old in a country like Japan or the US is anywhere from 20,000,000 to 60,000,000 Yen, and you have to spend three times that over the course of 17 years, with a final cost of about 3,520,000 yen per year. Keep in mind, this is only the cost for any children you might have, you also have to factor in your wives, yourself, and your house. You can't support this on a part time job, and would have to cut a lot of corners to do it on an average salary, so you need to earn a lot of money. In order to do that, you need a high-paying job, and high paying jobs are typically given to college graduates from prestigious universities, or to brilliant entrepreneurs. Also, you need to be able to handle most finances yourself, so that you are seen as a column of support, rather than a freeloader. Beneath application are the two other subcategories, intelligence and wisdom. A work of fanfiction I read sums it up best, intelligence gives you options, representing the total breadth of your knowledge of what you can do in a given situation. Wisdom, on the other hand, helps you pick from what options you have, helping you make better decisions. You need to excel in both to succeed, using intelligence to think up the best option and wisdom to realize it is the best and pick it."

I tapped the third column, as Issei looked at me expectantly.

"The third aspect of gathering a harem is charisma, the ability to protect and support a harem is nothing if you cannot attract the members in the first place. It not only helps in this aspect, but also gives you connections, people with skills you could never hope to learn or didn't have time to, it helps you barter and interview so that way you can make yourself even more appealing to employers. It is the core ability for any social interaction…"

Issei looked at me, trembling in anticipation with hope. I could practically see his fantasizing of himself surrounded by beautiful ladies.

"…and I know absolutely squat about it."

Huh. So _that's_ what a face-fault looks like in real life. Oh. Now he's looking at me depressed, great, now I feel like crap.

"Ok, so while I might not know much, you were able to grow enough on your own for this to work. Basically, the original you was kind and compassionate, always ready to throw himself at any problem to protect his friends and accept them no matter what. And that worked out fine for you. The only issue I had was how open you were with your perversion."

Issei snapped out of his funk with incredible speed, it was like he had never been affected. He then proceeded to get right in my face.

"Why should I be silent? Oppai are the best things on earth and everyone should be aware of their greatness!"

I gave him a gentle slap upside the head and rolled my eyes.

"I agree with you, boobs are great, the problem is that girls don't like it when you do perverted things in public. I'm not saying be an asexual prude, hell, you can be as perverted as you like, but perversion is like illegal activities, it's not a problem until you get caught. So the trick is to be a smart and chivalrous pervert. Never peek on girls, thank them for an accidental show, read adult material in the privacy of your own room, only exchange it incognito, and for the love of every divinity in existence, never announce out loud your fantasies while the girls in question are in front of you. So yeah, in general, being kind and considerate should work, keep your perversion stealthy, and remember to practice basic hygiene."

I stood up and stretched, feeling my nonexistent joints groan in protest.

"That should be all for tonight, when you wake up tomorrow, we'll get started on your training before school, and then I'll elaborate more on it tomorrow night. Nice to meet you Issei, I hope we can work well together in the future."

Issei looked at me confusedly, "Tomorrow's a Saturday, I don't have school"

I smiled back with a feral grin,"Even better"

With those words I began to dismiss the projections, letting Issei travel back to the world of the waking, and as light began to filter in as Issei opened his eyes, I cracked my knuckles.

I had a lot of work to do.

* * *

 **Author's Note: As you can probably guess, this is my first fanfic. I'm going to see what the initial reaction is before I post any further chapters, but the basic idea is that Issei will be at about mid-tier strength by the time canon hits and will have a vastly different connection structure.**


	2. Introduction Part 2

Issei slowly sat up in bed, his post-sleep aches filtering into my own body as a series of phantom pains.

Issei appeared to be scratching his head and waking up. As he slipped his feet off the bed and onto the floor he said to himself, "That was a weird dream last night, seriously why would I imagine an advisor in my head?"

Heh. This was going to be fun. Silently inhaling as much metaphorical air as I could I waited for a few seconds, then yelled at the top of my lungs.

'SUP BITCH!'

"Aaaaaah!", Issei let loose with a glass-shatteringly high falsetto scream and leapt about a foot in the air, got caught in his sheets, and crashed to the ground.

"You're real!"

The sound of pounding feet echoed through the house.

I performed the mental equivalent of an eye roll and replied, 'Yep, but talk later, I can hear your parents coming in to check on you, and I would advise against letting them know I exist, just mutter something about getting spooked by a bug or getting caught in the sheets.'

Just as I finished saying this, Issei's parents burst into the room, nearly falling in a pile in their haste.

"issei! What's wrong?"

Issei stammered out a, "N-n-nothing, nothing at all! I just got caught in my sheets and fell." Now, this would have worked in most cases, but I had forgotten one important detail. Issei couldn't tell a lie to save his life, to save someone else's, maybe, but right now his stuttering and body language were screaming 'liar'. Suppose I couldn't complain too much, honesty is a nice virtue to have, and I had a similar problem growing up, a grin that occurred every time I lied or obstructed the truth intentionally.

His mother walked over to us, "Issei, honey, what's really going on?"

I sighed, 'Well Issei, I had been hoping to mask our presence from your parents for a bit, but it appears fate has other ideas. So tell them what I told you last night, that you have a voice in your head that gives you a second opinion on things and knows the future, and a dragon in your arm that boosts your power and turns into a gauntlet.'

As Issei followed my advice, I could see the faces of his parents grow more and more worried. His mother eventually reached down to feel our forehead while his father began crying about something regarding 'good-for-nothing sons' and 'finally lost it'. She gently said to Issei, "Issei, are you feeling alright? Do you have a fever?"

Issei mumbled to me, "Sorry."

I sighed and told him, 'Don't worry about it, it's my fault for scaring you anyways. Besides, we would have to have told them eventually if we wanted to get away with some of my more ambitious plans, this just moves a timetable into an unfortunate position that will create an early resource draw. For now just do what I say, we're going to activate your sacred gear as proof. Imagine all your power travelling into the most powerful thing you can think of and being shoved into your left palm, gradually shaping that thing into a red metal glove.. As soon as you feel that energy boiling over, thrust your hand forward and call out [Boosted Gear]!'

Issei took a few steps back and said, "No, he is real, I'll prove it right now!" I could feel the look of concentration on Issei's face as he focused, his parents giving him a questioning look.

"[Boosted Gear]!"

A small flicker of light appeared on Issei's palm, too small and brief to be seen unless you were looking for it, but it was there. Now his parents were getting worried and Issei was staring to panic.

'Calm down Issei, few people are able to get things right on the first try, you almost had it, just reset and try again'

Issei pulled his hand back, relaxed for a few seconds, and launched his fist forward.

His mother began to step forward, arms raised, "Issei I really think you shouldn't…"

"[Boosted Gear]!"

I felt something _shift_ in Issei's mindscape as green light illuminated the room. As the spots faded I looked at what Issei had been able to do. On the sacred gear side, his left hand was now covered by a clawed gauntlet made of red metal inlaid with a singular green gem over the palm and two yellow spikes running along the sides. On the paternal side, his parents were now watching with expressions of pure shock, mouths hanging open, his mother's hand still outstretched.

I felt Issei's face shift into a grin as he opened his mouth once more, "See? I was telling the truth."

And that was the final straw as Issei's parents slumped to the floor. I spent the next five seconds getting a good laugh, before having to cut my enjoyment short to help Issei make sure his parents were alright.

* * *

"…And that's what happened. So Solus said he would start explaining his training regime today, last night was apparently the reason why."

Issei sat at the table across from his parents. After having woken up from their shock-induced nap, they immediately sat us down at the table and made me give the exposition speech all over again. As soon as that finished another round of questioning started, this time from Issei's parents and much more extensive than the few Issei asked last night. So I had to explain, through Issei, to people that yes, I am a dead soul bound to another, no, I'm not taking over Issei's mind, no, I don't know how or why I got forced into this, nor do I care, it's done I'll live with it, and finally, yes, your son does have a harem in the future, and yes there will be grandchildren. I was actually impressed by the victory celebration Issei's parents had at that last one.

As Issei's parents went for their tenth victory lap in celebration while me and Issei watched on, I heard his voice pipe up in the mindscape.

'Solus? How big is my harem going to be?'

I thought about it for a minute, ran some mental calculations, then pulled out a pad of paper and did some work on that, then put my pencil down and replied.

'Depends on whether we follow canon or we use my current plans. In the canon storyline you had a harem of about eleven, though my work should boost that number up to eighteen or nineteen, depending on some factors and what you want.'

And now Issei has joined his parents in the victory celebration, that's nice, it wasn't like I had anything planned for today. You know, except training to survive the utter chaos that is the supernatural world!

Seeing as Issei would be occupied for the next hour or so, I decided to poke around in the mindscape for a bit and see if I could find Ddraig. His expertise would be greatly beneficial to boosting Issei's learning rate and developing his fighting style. Plus, he should be able to become our conduit to the souls of the past users of the [Boosted Gear], some of which probably had useful skills, such as magic expertise or combat knowledge.

* * *

One hour later, the Mindscape.

Ok. How the hell is it so hard to find a building-sized dragon with really shiny crimson scales with literally nothing for him to hide behind? So, clearly the manual route is out, let's try something different.

"Ddraig! Get your ass out here or I'm going to throw your strongest host to Albion and let him curbstomp you in the most embarrassing way possible this cycle!"

I didn't hear anything but I got the distinct impression that something was rolling its eyes at me. Ok, method two.

"Ddraig, I know you've been listening, so you know I know the future, so here's the deal I'll make you. You come out and help me train our current host, or I do nothing in the future to curb Issei's perversion and let him earn you the nickname 'Breast Dragon Emperor' for all eternity."

*snort*

"I'm serious, the best examples are that he was able to gain a chain of about twenty boosts because he realized Ablion's divide power would halve the size of a girl's boobs, and that he was able to escape the curse of Juggernaut Drive by poking that same girl's boobs."

That appeared to do the trick, as Ddraig began to materialize in front of me, I thought he would be bigger. Wait, that's not his head, that's the tip of his tail…

"Woahshit!"

I leapt back as a head the size of a van leaned down in front of me, fangs the size of my arm jutting out from a maw that glowed with internal flames. Ddraig's main body stretching out behind him with the tail curling back around to rest by his chin.

A voice that shook the very void I stood in rumbled out, "What do you want?"

Regaining my composure, thank you Lagrange for the emotional dampening, I dusted myself off and replied to the mountain of flesh, scales, fire, and more fire in front of me.

"Hello, Ddraig. I was hoping to wake you up early so that way I could improve Issei's base power quickly."

"And why should I listen to you, mortal?"

"For I can see the future Ddraig, and a true storm is coming to the world of the supernatural. Ancient bonds shall be shattered, while new alliances form. The infinite shall be bound by the masses, and the slayers of gods shall make their moves. And at the eye of this storm is your host, the core of a tempest that will rewrite the order of the supernatural world and birth the most powerful red and white dragons to date. Our current host might not seem like much right now, but give him a reason to fight and he will break any barrier in his way to win that fight. In the original timeline he wielded the power of gods and devils alike, used a dragon-slaying sword despite being part dragon, was able to combine the [Divine Dividing] and the [Boosted Gear] into one, and beat the curse of [Juggernaut Drive]. That is the potential of our host Ddraig, and I aim to see how far I can push it. I hope for him to become a warrior without peer, a man who can decimate armies alone, a mage of unparalleled strength, able to rewrite reality with his spells and blow cities to dust with a single strike, and most of all, I seek to grant his wish, to gather a harem of powerful mates for him to protect and to protect him in turn, all growing stronger for the sake of each other. So, Red Dragon Emperor of Domination, are you with me?"

Ddraig stared at me, his eyes boring into my soul, then with a snort he tossed his head back and _laughed._ The void shook with the force of his mirth. As he slowly calmed himself back down, he held out a claw for me to shake.

"Solus, I believe this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

"Excellent, glad to have you aboard. Why don't we go fetch our host and then we can discuss his training regimen. Should we start with trying to get him able to dodge a car or able to punch through concrete?"

The twin grins Ddraig and I wore at that moment would have sent lesser men fleeing in terror, and across the supernatural realm, many a being flinched as an inexplicable sense of dread gripped their hearts.

* * *

 **Author's Note: So because I keep these kind of short, I was able to get this chapter out pretty quickly. Just to warn you, my writing tends to start out strong but get worse the longer it gets. Hopefully that doesn't happen here, and I'll do what I can to prevent it but be warned.**

 **In regards to Issei's future harem, I intend for Issei to develop his own (Inferior) version of the peerage system. The members of this system will be added to the canon harem over time, and mostly take the form of girls unaffiliated with or removed from major groups. I was also asked a question about the perverted duo. Due to my SI meeting Issei early in the fic, the original friendship will not develop as it did before, so things will definitely change on that front.**

 **Next chapter will cover Issei's training goals.**


	3. Introduction Part 3

I connected back up to Issei's senses, Ddraig following close behind. Issei and his parents were still celebrating, although they had calmed themselves down quite a bit.

'Ok, I hate to be the party pooper, but we kind of need to get back on topic'

Issei slowly stopped his dance and sat down at the table, his parents following soon after.

'Ok, Issei, I need you to get a pencil and paper so that way we can chart this stuff out, me and the dragon I mentioned earlier are going to rig up a training regime for you and we want your parents to be in on it as well. This will make it easier for us to accomplish tasks that require an adult's resources instead of what we already have'

While Issei was off gathering the materials, I was summoning up a few things that I would need myself. A whiteboard, a marker for the whiteboard, a viewscreen, and a laptop. Surprisingly, I did have an internet connection up here, but anything related to the plot of DxD was censored, so I would have to work with what I knew already.

'Ok Issei, Ddraig, let's get started. As I mentioned last night, Issei needs to boost his strength, intellect, and charisma, but I have no ideas on how to improve that last one. What about you, Ddraig?'

"My apologies Solus, Dragons are naturally charismatic, I never had to train that skill in my life and none of my past users did so either. We were much more focused on battle."

'So we'll ignore that category and just work with what we have, to be honest, that was my original plan, I was just looking for any alternatives we could try.'

I began scribbling on the white board again, drawing a few boxes, lists, and diagrams.

'Ok, as me and Ddraig know but you three don't, the supernatural world is a dangerous place, and Issei was going to be dragged into it no matter what. Therefore, we need to train him and get him strong enough to protect himself, his family, and his friends in the future. Currently, my plan for Issei's training contains three parts, working on upping his physical abilities such as skill with [Boosted Gear] and raw athleticism, working on developing his mental abilities, and working on his magical capabilities. We can use [Boosted Gear] to help accelerate the rate at which we gain most of these by applying the boost to Issei's mental processing and retention rates. We have five to seven years before the original timeline begins, and we have a lot of work to do before then. In addition, I advise that we have Issei sacrifice one of his internal aspects to replace with a dragon component, such as his blood.'

Everyone looked at me in horror, "Why should he do that?"

I knew I would need to elaborate on this, so I had prepared my argument in advance. "Three reasons, first off is on the magical side of things. Dragon magic is primarily elemental in nature, specifically for Ddraig it's wind and fire, and is much easier to cast than human magic, which requires extensive training in mathematics and energy manipulation. While human magic will be a valuable asset to learn in the long run due to its versatility, dragon magic has a higher peak power output and can be learned much more rapidly. However, it can only be accessed by someone who is part dragon, hence replacing Issei's blood. Second, Draconic aspects boost your power cap. Issei might train his arms and legs off for five years, but in the end, his base power will still be capped at human limits, which would be removed if he acquired draconic aspects. Thirdly, by accepting Ddraig's aspects into himself, Issei should gain an affinity for some of Ddraig's original powers and traits which would put us head and shoulders above most opponents at peak form. Hell, we could probably have Issei able to fly within a week with this ritual, as most mixed species gain their parent's wings if applicable. The reason I'm recommending we swap Issei's blood is that blood pervades the body, and as such would lead to an increase in all aspects of his form, from his muscles to his mind to his senses. Also, it would improve his stamina and staying power, as blood carries nutrients and life, so having dragon's blood should increase his vitality even further, allowing for more extreme training.'

His mother meekly piped up, "But why does Issei need all this power? Couldn't he stay out of this mess and never have to fight?"

I sighed with resignation, 'I wish it were that easy, but because fate gave him this gauntlet, he was guaranteed to be dragged into this mess, whether I came along or not. At least this way he'll be ready for what comes ahead instead of being thrown into the deep end headfirst.'

They all gazed off with a blank look in their eyes, Ddraig in a sort of amazement, while Issei and his parents had a look of worry instead. A few seconds of thinking later, their minds seemed to shift to accept that if Issei wanted to survive and thrive in this world, he would need as much power as he could.

Smirking to myself I decided to have a little more fun, 'I do have one more reason for requesting this, which is that flying with dragon wings would be totally awesome!'

The mindscape shook with Ddraig's facefault. Issei, on the other hand, was gazing at the nearby window and I could practically see the stars in his eyes from how awesome he thought he would be. Since he was unable to relay what I said, having gone catatonic with awesome, his parents just watched in confusion as he stared off into space. The whole while I was laughing my ass off in Issei's mindscape.

Once those of us in the mental uplink recovered, I sat back down and continued my explanation.

'Ok, dragon blood aside, the next order of business will be Issei's standard studying and training, as I said earlier my plan is to copy something I read in a fanfic once, in that we'll use the [Boosted Gear] to accelerate Issei's learning rate, helping him develop skills that will maximize the effects of his workouts, while simultaneously helping him with his academic learning. I hope to have Issei up to college level within a few years, and have him start building his funds as soon as possible'

Mr. and Mrs. Hyoudou looked at us, "How do you expect our son to get through twelve years of education in so little time?"

'Again, we're going to be using the boosted gear. Currently, Issei can only boost two or three times before having to reset, but a few months of training could get that up to six [Boosts]. Each [Boost] doubles his previous learning rate, so at six [Boosts], Issei will be learning sixty-four times faster than his baseline, which will let me not only get him to graduate level, but should also give us plenty of time to fit in all his other training. The same will hold on the physical front, using the [Boosts] to build proper workout form and method, while increasing muscular recovery rate. The same applies to Issei's fighting style, which I'm going to take five on to discuss specifics with him and Ddraig.'

Leaving them gaping like fish at the rate Issei would be going through school, I turned my attention back to the mindscape, summoning Issei's avatar for a face-to face talk.

"Ok, as of right now I intend to have Issei learn to fight barehanded, as we won't have access to any good magic weapons for a while, and [Boosted Gear] already manifests as a gauntlet, so we can start training with it now. The fighting style as far as I can figure should revolve around maximizing our draconic, magical, and [Sacred Gear] capabilities through two aspects, long-range dodging to give time to [Boost] an attack or launch ranged elemental strikes, then rapidly closing the distance for the kill, and brutal close-quarters combat designed to drag out until enough [Boosts] have accumulated to turn the tables. To that end, I intend to create a martial art based off Yang Xao Long's fighting style, possibly with a mix of Natsu Dragneel, and edited by whatever Ddraig knows to make it more practical. For now, I'm going to show you some clips I was able to get from my home world to allow you to see what I'm talking about.

I pulled up the _RWBY: Yellow Trailer_ on the viewscreen and set it to play. Turning to Ddraig, I explained, "The style you're going to see here is still heavily unrefined and has a major weakness to kicks, but it should give us a good base to work on. Once the clip finishes, feel free to start making edits as needed to optimize it for reality, I think we should throw in some grappling to control the enemy, but you're the combat expert."

As Yang was revealed on screen, I could see Issei staring at her boobs as she strutted up to the bar. Then Yang crushed Junior's balls. The squeak of fear Issei let out was hilarious. Since I had a few seconds before the fight started, I leaned over and whispered in Issei's ear, "This is why you don't ogle girls or read porn when they can see you." Issei's reply was cut short by Yang throwing her first punch, and then the fight was on. I could see Ddraig contemplating the fight with an experienced eye, while Issei watched with childish awe. When the scene with Yang's hair occurred, Issei paled.

"Do girls really get that angry when you mess with their hair?"

"Issei, that, just like everything in the world, depends on the specific context of the situation. Some girls don't care, others are violently obsessive, and most often it has to do with how well you know the girl in question. Don't worry about it too much, just use your best judgement and it should all work out."

The trailer having finished, I then played a few more clips of Yang's fights, avoiding the one with Neon, because I wanted to do things today and I wouldn't get Issei away from the screen if I showed it. I followed it with a few clips of Natsu's fights, placing emphasis on his mix of martial arts and spellwork, something else I hoped to incorporate into Issei's fighting style.

Having given him a few minutes to think it over, I turned to our resident combat expert.

"So Ddraig, do you think we can make something effective based off this, and Issei, do you think you would be willing to learn this? "

Both of them smiled at me, Ddraig in grim satisfaction, and Issei in energetic joy.

Ddraig's response was calm and measured, "Most definitely, I believe we will also incorporate some grappling as you mentioned earlier, I know a few tricks that could help incorporate leg strikes into the style, and I can definitely remove the current weakness to kicks. I'll have some starting katas ready by the end of the meeting, and I should have most of the style developed by the end of the week."

Issei, on the other hand, was far less subdued.

"She was so awesome, she was like bang, bang, pow, slam! You bet I want to learn that!"

"Excellent, let's get back to your parents so I can continue laying out my plans."

Our time in the mindscape over, we returned to the present to find breakfast laid out before us.

Issei's father looked over at us and inquired, "Back with us?" At our nod, he continued, "It was getting a bit late in the morning and you seemed engrossed in what you were doing, so we decided to make breakfast. We can continue afterwards."

Issei's stomach decided to voice its own opinion at that moment, so Issei plopped himself down and started on breakfast.

* * *

After breakfast was finished and we had cleaned up, the conversation resumed.

'Ok, I believe I already covered academics, [Boosted Gear], and physical training, that leaves finances, which I will wait on until Issei has completed a good chunk of academic work, and my personal favorite category, magic.'

I began rapidly drawing on the whiteboard, Issei's own hands working overtime to keep up with me. When I was finished I had four columns, one of which possessing the numbers one through six in a list form.

'Issei's magic can be best broken down into four parts, the first is the basic six spells I believe should get him through most fights, those being Magic Missile, Fireball, Explosive Runes, Dress Break, Bilingual, and Dragon Shot'

At the words "Dress Break" I felt a glare from Ddraig and Issei's parents.

They said in perfect synch, "Thought you said you were going to prevent him from being a massive pervert."

"I am, the fact of the matter is that dress break was a very useful wind-based spell against females in the original timeline, and if we develop it correctly, can even be used to remove armor and magical seals. Besides, I'll make sure we use it sparingly"

Ddraig let out a grudging snort. "Fine, get back on topic before I change my mind."

'The spells I just gave can be further divided into two categories, the three spells Issei originally learned, largely perverted in base but surprisingly useful, Dress Break, Bilingual, and Dragon Shot, and the three I believe he needs to learn, Magic Missile, Fireball, and Explosive Runes. I already explained Dress Break, the next one is Bilingual, a form of mind reading able to bypass mental defenses by not reading the mind itself, but instead translating what a girl's breasts are saying, no I'm not making this up, it's a completely useful move so stop snickering. It gives Issei a form of combat precognition and is able to give him completely truthful information somehow, which means he can find out important secrets from a girl rather rapidly. Finally is Dragon Shot, the standard ranged attack for most Red Dragon Emperors, which is a blast of pure draconic energy that either takes the form of an exploding sphere or a beam. The additional three I recommend he learns this time around are a standard issue fireball spell, any mage worth their reagents and magic circles learns this kind of a spell at some point, and it is strangely effective against pretty much any standard opponent. The next one is Magic Missile, an air-fire-hybrid spell with the key ability being a tracking aspect. While we'll have to sacrifice damage, having a tracking shot that we could probably [Boost] to a near confirmed hit will be vital. Finally, we have Explosive Runes, a trap spell useful for tricking opponents and hitting enemies when they least expect it. Plus, the best way to use it is to write the runes as the words, "I prepared Explosive Runes this morning" really small so that way a pursuer has to lean in to read them, then set the spell to go off as soon as they've finished reading.'

I smirked as I recalled all the times Vaarsuvius did that on _Order of the Stick_.

'Ok, now that I've gotten the core six out of the way, let's move on to the next category, human magic. Human magic is your utility spell group, best suited for more stationary or long-term spells, rather than rapid casting. They key components of this spell group will be wards and cloaks, both to keep our power masked until the time is right and to protect yourself and your parents, as they are still squishy humans. On that note, I think we should teach your parents enough human spells so that they can contact you and then hold out until you arrive on scene if some idiot makes the monumentally stupid decision to come after them to get at you. We should also look into scrying, as long-distance viewing will be very beneficial to our future efforts. After human magic is the third group, dragon magic, our primary offensive base. It covers fire and wind based elemental spells, and is much more powerful and easy to cast, but far less versatile, as every spell in this group has to tie back in to either fire or wind. Finally, we have the last group, which I will call epic-level spells. These are spells that will take significant effort to learn or develop, but are nearly unrivalled in their power or usefulness. The best example I can think of would be a dragon-based spell allowing Issei to wield Ddraig's original flames.'

The three humans in the room expressed confusion, while Ddraig seemed to be honestly impressed.

Issei piped up, "What's so special about his flames, Solus?"

My grin was feral as I began, 'You know how your sacred gear grows your power exponentially? Ddraig's flames are what that growth is based on, where they spread and grew to consume any being in the universe, with the exception of three, possibly four depending on some factors. However, it's very much an all or nothing technique, it will either grow to engulf the target and burn it to ashes, or be shrugged off, with almost no middle ground. Another thing I want to attempt to create is something like the current [Evil Piece] and [Brave Saint] systems the devils and angels use respectively. I'm going to base it off Dungeons and Dragons classes, and the basic idea is that by forming a pact, we infuse parts of their body with a boost of draconic energy, granting the bearer their own well of it to draw on and boosting their growth rate and cap. For example, the [Wizard] class will receive a boost to their mental and magical powers, thus boosting their casting capabilities. Again, these sorts of spells are far future projects, so don't think about them too much right now.'

'Anyways, other than all of that, I might take some looks into magical metallurgy, but that's for my own amusement and I'll save it for later. Ddraig, you want to show us how to set the ritual up so we can get started?'

As Issei settled into the floor and began speaking the words as Ddraig told him them, his father jumped up, "Why do you have to start this already? Can't you wait another day or two?"

Me, Ddraig, and Issei smiled, "Nope, awesomeness waits for no man."

And then the room was engulfed in green light as I felt _power_ flood through Issei's body.

As the energy built to a crescendo, I heard Issei's voice call out, "Ready or not world, I'm gonna be the harem king!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **So** **yeah, this should be the last introduction chapter, the next few will be events that happen during training but before canon.**

 **As always, please read and rate, feedback helps a lot.**


	4. Fruits of our Labors and Hidden Origins

One year and change later.

"Dragon Shot!"

"Eight Gauge Hammer!"

Yellow shotgun-gauntlet clad fist met ray of green light, blasting it in two, as the ground boiled beneath me. At the other end of the mindscape arena stood Issei's projection, his own gauntlet raised high to point at me. With a brief moment to gather our strength, I slammed my gauntlets behind me and fired, using the recoil to launch myself forward, as Issei bunched his legs and exploded forward, fist cocked back to engage. With an almighty crash that sent shockwaves in every direction, our armored fists met, Issei quickly spinning his gauntlet-clad arm to grab my extended wrist. His gauntlet loudly calling out [Boost], its third call of the match, as he ripped my arm forward and brought his opposite elbow down on the hyperextended limb, shattering my elbow and rendering the limb useless. As I directed my energy to repairing it, he wasted no time on the follow up, moving through the strike to place his elbow by his waist, then reversing the motion into a straight punch at my chest while releasing his other hand, sending me staggering back, off balance. This was immediately followed by him launching himself forward again, slipping inside my guard before I could reset, and unleashing a flurry of blows on my torso, finishing with a roundhouse kick that sent me sprawling to the ground. While I rolled to my feet, a small red magic circle appeared on Issei's hand, a stylized dragon head appearing at the center.

"[Fireball] and [Transfer]!"

A sphere of flame appeared in front of Issei's palm and then exploded out to the size of a small car. This orb of fiery death then proceeded to barrel downrange and impact my sorry ass, just as I was able to snap my gauntlet behind myself to reengage.

* * *

"Fucking Ow."

I sat on the ground rubbing the feeling back into my freshly regrown limbs. Getting incinerated hurts, even if you're a spiritual construct with deadened nerves. Having it happen three times in the span of one hour is even worse.

"Seriously, fireball really shouldn't be as effective and useful as it is for you."

"Come on, why are you complaining? You have regeneration, and I whine less in a week than you do in an hour."

Issei stood in front of me in the mindscape. It was nighttime, so we were up here training while his physical body slept today's efforts off.

"Because regeneration does jack against feeling the pain in the first place. So you can either deal with my complaining, or you can have Ddraig as your sparring partner for hand-to-hand combat in addition to aerial. Speaking of which, aren't you doing that with him next?"

Issei paled. "I will pay you in whatever currency you want to get me out of it for one day."

"Sorry man, but as you know, I just finished getting my Steam account set back up, and I'm going to go play video games for the next two hours unless something comes up."

"I seriously can't believe you can get internet in my head"

"Isn't it nice? Now hurry up, Ddraig seemed to be looking for an excuse to work you even harder than usual, and being late will certainly suffice."

Issei blinked out of existence, leaving behind a wave of displaced air to wash over me.

I smiled and called after him, "Bye!"

I sat down in my nice chair and booted up one of my more simplistic survival games. As I wandered around the abandoned town, dodging zombies, I looked back on all the work Issei had accomplished over the last year. Issei had certainly bulked up a bit, his muscles becoming more defined, but as an anime protagonist, and likely due to something in the dragon's blood, he didn't really bulk up in accordance with his strength increase. Despite having relatively slender limbs compared to some fighters, he certainly didn't lack for strength. I think his current baseline deadlift was somewhere along the lines of twenty tons, and he could pull about four times that. We had actually found an abandoned rail yard, and after putting down a couple wards to keep away observers, started using that. You would not believe how fast Issei built cardio when he started doing his morning runs pulling a ten-car train behind him. Then there was durability…

"Oh Ophis, mercy Ddraig! Mercy!"

 ***Boom***

As the echoes of the explosion spread throughout the void, I snickered. Well, if Ddraig hasn't killed him yet, I'm pretty sure nothing else early game could, but that's in the mindscape simulations. Issei had also grown exponentially in terms of his martial arts mastery, but it was hard to judge exactly how good he was when the only real opponent he had was me. Ddraig really came through on the style, an epic blend of motions and strikes that could kick serious ass, as a few unfortunate gangsters found out. We also had him learning aerial combat using his new draconic aspects. Speaking of which…

A voice from behind jolted me from my pondering, "You two suck, so much."

I turned around to see a singed and battered Issei, wings and tail still extended, a quick wave of my hand bringing his avatar back to full physical peak. Did you know that unless some race with wings is involved, such as an angel or a devil, part-dragons not only sprout wings but also tails for flight? Apparently, it has something to do with the tails functioning as a steering mechanism, increasing their maneuverability.

"Oh, and why is that?"

"He's a compete psycho with his flight training, and you abandoned me to deal with him!"

"Fine, I'll see if I can get him to tone it down a little, you want to give this a try?"

"Sure! Your games are fun! Which one would…"

*Ring* *Ring*

"Looks like it's time to wake up Issei.. Sorry, save it for during class."

* * *

Issei's image faded out as his senses filtered into the mindscape and the incessant ringing filled our ears. As Issei glanced over at his alarm, I summoned up a card table and settled in, Ddraig coiling up on the other side.

"Go fish? We played blackjack last week."

"Sure. Just so long as it isn't poker, it's too easy for me with how horrible your poker face is."

As I shuffled the deck I felt a nagging in the back of my mind, something about this morning's wakeup seemed off…

"Oh, hey Aika!"

That's right! That wasn't Issei's alarm clock, that was his cellphone. So that means Aika called us this morning. I turned to Ddraig with a smirk and said, "Pause while we get blackmail material?". He merely nodded and motioned for me to listen.

"It's no trouble at all Aika, really. My alarm was set to go off in a few minutes anyways. So what do you need?"

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to walk to school together."

"Sure! If the lady demands it, her knight shall provide."

As their conversation continued on, I recalled how the hell this massive butterfly came about.

* * *

Three months previously.

Issei was walking down a street in downtown Kuoh, muttering under his breath at me and Ddraig.

"...and sweet Red I did not know how much a train weighed! When you said we were going there to train I thought you were going to have me run on moving train cars or something for agility, not have me pull the damn things after having laced the track with Explosive Runes! Do you two jackasses get off…"

"Kyaaaa!"

Issei spun around to see a small girl about his age with large, round glasses, a silver locket around her neck, and brown hair tied up in a braid backed up against a wall, a fancy silver flute clutched in her hands. In front of her stood four gang members, two armed with bats hanging in the background, their weapons slung over their shoulders, one to the side, brandishing a pair of brass knuckles, and the last right in front of her, pointing some sort of knife at her.

The lead ganger spoke up in a voice laced with what I suspected was phlegm, "Hey cutie, that flute and locket of yours look real pretty, almost as pretty as you. Why don't you give them to us so we can keep them safe for you, along with any money you might have. We'll put them to good use. Heh."

One of the bat-wielding thugs took that moment to speak up, "You know, we probably would have left you be if you weren't so cute. Cute girls are sheltered, so they need their things kept safe by guys like us."

In an instant, the temperature in the mindscape ratcheted up a few degrees, as Issei began to growl. Me and Ddraig looked at each other before I stepped forward.

"Issei, I know you want to go hog wild on these bastards, but please show some restraint. I don't want to be dealing with murder charges at this point."

Issei seemed surprised, "You're not going to tell me to ignore it, or to just call the police and let them handle it?"

"No, I want you to still call the police, then engage. Be polite, be efficient, nothing supernatural, and most importantly… **Make those bastards piss themselves in fear.** "

Issei's grin went feral, "Got it, Solus"

Issie's fingers grasped his cell phone, sending a text to the local police unit giving the address and informing them that it was a mugging. He walked with a calm and measured pace towards the four gangers, them finally noticing him when he was about three meters out.

Brass Knuckles leered at us, "Get lost kid, this doesn't concern you, unless you want trouble."

Issei smiled and replied in a calm, measured voice, "Oh? But it does concern me, good sir, for I see four rogues ganging up on a lady over there, who appears to be in a state of distress. What sort of man would I be if I were to leave her to the wayside? Not a good man, that is for certain. So I will give you four ignorami one opportunity to flee, before I am forced to take action."

The "good sir" comment surprised me. It was a saying I sometimes used, and it appears Issei thought it appropriate for the situation.

Brass Knuckles laughed and pulled his fist back "You're funny kid, though you would be funnier with a few gaps in your smile. Seriously, why should we run from you?"

Clearly this mortal has not heard of the concept of tempting fate, so Issei decided to educate him. As the blatantly telegraphed strike zoomed in, Issei tilted his head to the side, letting the fist blow gently past, before slamming his own fist into the man's stomach and up, forcing his diaphragm to crumple and blasting the wind out of his lungs. As he sagged forward to regain his breath, Issei knocked him out with a quick elbow strike to the back of the head, his face making crunching sounds as it hit the floor.

Issei smiled, "Are you going to leave now?"

Knife coughed out his next orders, "Ok, get him!"

The two bat-wielders charged forward, while Knife kept an eye on their target. The big guys seemed a bit shaken from Issei's takedown, but not enough to offset the standard issue balls-for-brains of most gang members. They both reached Issei's position at the same time, bringing their bats down in near-perfect synch, one on each side. Unfortunately for them, they decided to take a nice, big, overhead windup to build power. This gave Issei plenty of time to dart forward, spinning on his left leg to sweep the legs of the goon to his right, and then continuing through the motion to bring his right arm around to bear. With the man having twisted as he fell, Issei's mighty punch down clocked him right in the temple. If that punch hadn't knocked him out, the clunking sounds his head made on the pavement was a sure indicator. Issei didn't have the time to analyze this, as he was already moving on to the other ganger, who had recovered from his missed swing to bring his bat around in a horizontal strike. Issei bolted forward, getting inside the thug's swing range, so that he would be hit by the man's arms, rather than the bat. His fists raised, Issei began pounding the ganger with a flurry of strikes in a perfect combo. Fists rained down on the man's stomach, chest, and face, the ganger stumbling back and holding his bat to the side to clutch at his new bruises. With his guard down, Issei went in for the kill, a massive right hook slamming into the man's jaw. By hitting the jaw, one gains leverage, forcing the brain to rattle, which leads to concussions, as was the case here. The third ganger crumpled to the ground as Issei followed through and lowered his fists, taking in the sight before him.

The last ganger had decided to take the poor girl hostage, his knife held to her throat as he glared at us. His phlegmy voice croaking out, "Ok kid here's the deal, you're gonna let me go, you're not gonna tell anyone about this, and you're gonna give me all your money, or this one gets it."

"I don't think you're in any position to make demands, Mr. Knife. The way I see it you have three options. Option one, you drop the knife and run away right now, and I leave you alone and don't bother sending the police after you. Option two, you stay there until the police I already notified get here, and they arrest you along with your buddies for armed robbery, while I go home because they'll clean up the situation instead. Option three, you kill the lady and try to run, I stomp you into the ground, and then the police cart you away for murder.  
Of the three options I gave you only one… Wow he sure runs fast."

Indeed, the ganger had taken off once he realized how screwed he was, trying to take a hostage. Issei walked over to the girl and asked, "Did they hurt you? Did they manage to get anything?" The girl shook her head no, clearly not in any condition to talk for a few seconds, but she seemed to be calming down. Issei spoke up again, "I'm going to stick around until the police get here, which shouldn't be too long. My name is Issei Hyoudou, what's yours?"

A quiet voice piped up, "Aika, Aika Kiryuu. Thank you for saving me Issei."

I actually froze.

'Shit.'

Issei immediately went on high alert, 'Solus, what's wrong?'

'I think our training caused us to see a background event that was never revealed in canon. The Aika of the future was loud, assertive, and a massive covert pervert, always taking you down a peg. She also was fairly bedraggled, with bits of her hair askew and her uniform a bit rumpled. I suspect that in the original timeline she developed those traits as a result of this encounter, with no one to help her, she likely developed a minor fear of being seen as attractive, as those guys kept mentioning how her looks caused them to target her. So she stopped caring about her appearance, took up perversion as a hobby for some reason, and otherwise tried to make guys not see her as attractive in the classical sense. But now we've caused a massive butterfly that I can't predict the effects of.'

Issei simply sighed and sagged against the wall. 'Don't worry about it Solus, from what I can tell, if her backstory never came up in the original timeline, it didn't affect those events too much, so we'll be fine.'

Aika slipped down next to us, then suddenly grabbed Issei and buried her face in his chest. Issei, not knowing what to do, just put his hand over her shoulder.

"That flute and locket seem very precious to you Aika, care to tell me why?"

She sniffled, then nodded, a glint of determination forming in her eyes.

"They're all I have left of my birth mother, she died when I was younger and my father remarried. A lot of her stuff was either thrown away or sealed in the attic by my new mother. She used to play the flute for me before bed instead of a lullaby, and I'm trying to learn to play it in memory of her"

At the end, Aika went quiet for a bit, then snuggled in closer to him and relaxed. "Thank you for helping me Issei. If I'm a lady, then you're my knight in armor, you certainly handle yourself like one."

This was how the police found them when they arrived five minutes later.

After about fifteen minutes of answering questions and giving statements, Issei and Aika were brought home in a squad car, Aika holding on to Issei the entire ride. They dropped Issei off first, but just as we were getting out of the car to head inside , Aika grabbed our hand to stop us.

"Wait. Um. Can I please have your number? I'd like to have someone to talk with about today?"

Issei replied with a reassuring smile, "Sure."

Our numbers, Issei was walked up to the door and subjected to the tender mercies of his mother. His father on the other hand, was proud that his son had stood up to and beaten down three gang members to protect a girl. On seeing her husband's reaction, Issei's mother was, not pleased, to put it lightly. Needless to say, we were going to bed without desert or internet privileges for a week, and Mr. Hyoudou would be sleeping on the couch that night.

It was only when Issei got back to his room and had finished getting ready for bed that the true enormity of the situation hit us. Issei looked at me inquisitively and I rolled my eyes.

"Yes Issei, you really did just get a girl's number, and I think she likes you romantically."

* * *

 **Author's Note: So I was originally going to introduce a different character this chapter, but Aika just seemed to flow better so I went with her. Before you ask, A** **ika will be in the future party, with the classification of [Bard].**

 **Also I meant to post this in the last Author's Note, but I forgot.**

 **Solus's Powers:**

 **-Mindscape Manipulation: Solus has access to the 'mindscape' a void existing in his host's mental world that he can alter at will, summoning, rearranging, or dismissing objects. Comes with free WiFi, but cannot access anything related to the DxD universe.**

 **-Mental Communication: Solus is able to communicate with his host on a fundamental level, ignoring any language barrier. This is why Issei is able to understand Solus, even though Solus can only fluently speak English.** **This is also why Solus speaks through Issei instead of using the** **[Boosted Gear] to display his thoughts. The connection is two-way and linked to Issei's senses, so that Solus can translate any English Issei hears, and any Japanese Issei hears is automatically translated for Solus. If Issei learns another language, Solus is automatically given the translation Issei is able to develop.** **  
**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review.**


	5. The Scrying and the Rescue

A few minutes later, Issei had finished his chat with Aika and begun his morning routine. Issei's room had changed a bit over the years from what it would have been in canon. Shelves were equally packed with toys and eldritch devices that Issei used in his spells, the bed as well-slept in, and his desk was significantly more cluttered with various books and drawings. Anyways, Issei's first action was to change his clothes into what he would be wearing for the day, his school uniform, seeing as it was Thursday. Then he turned to his desk and flipped over a metallic panel, revealing a magic circle etched into the plate.

This magic circle connected into a bleeder network he set up about a month and a half into his training. The network was one of the main spells we used to mask Issei's presence. I knew Rias wouldn't be present until Issei was in high school, and there were a few years before canon where Kuoh had no devil presence as the various clans fought each other to gain control of it. I suspected we were in this limbo period, but just to be safe, power suppression was one of the first things I had Issei figure out. The bleeder network took this even further, draining the excess magic in any spell we cast connected to it and spreading said magic throughout the town and into the local ley lines, leaving no spot higher than the background signature.

Issei reached next to the plate and picked up a mirror, about 15cm by 15cm. Holding it over the etch, he began to concentrate, as a purple magic circle appeared on the surface of the mirror with tendrils of the same color drifting down to the etch. After a few seconds, a hazy image appeared along with slightly distorted voices, both of which soon sharpened to perfect clarity, revealing a room inhabited by two children, one male and one female, both with pointed ears, small fangs, and blonde hair. They appeared to be playing dress up, with the older girl convincing the boy to put on what appeared to be one of her dresses. However, despite the childishness of their games, their conversation and physiology was anything but. Both children showed signs of bruising at the edges of their clothing, clearly using long sleeves and high collars to cover it up, and their conversation was clearly laced with fear.

The girl's voice was the first to come through cleanly, "Gasper, are you sure you want to go through with this? You know what will happen if they catch us."

The younger one, still dressed in his friend's clothing, replied, "Of course. It can only get worse from here, and I want us to be free."

"When do you intend to make a break for it?"

"Next Saturday night, when the devils come here to visit. Everyone in the castle will be busy with them and we should be able to sneak out alone then."

The girl's expression turned sour, and adopted a hint of scolding.

"Alright, but if anything happens, I want you to listen to me, no matter what I tell you, alright?"

"Ok, Valerie. Let's make it out of here together."

Issei dismissed the scrying spell at this moment, returning the mirror back to its original state.

Issei spoke up, "So I'm going to guess that something goes wrong, and you intend for me to intervene?"

I nodded, 'Exactly, I already had you learn enough Romanian to get by, and now that we have the timetable for the event, we can plan our intervention. Don't worry about Gasper, one of the Gremories will help him, once again, we're saving the girl.'

I had hoped to also help Kiba a bit, but the Church clearly took security much more strongly than the vampires, and had set up anti-scrying wards I didn't feel safe trying to break through

Issei sighed and stood up, packing his schoolbooks into his bag and beginning to walk downstairs. "Ok, I'll pmake sure my parents know about this and put in a leave of absence with the school if I need it. Do you think I should pack tonight, and how long will we be flying for?"

'Better get it out of the way. About nine hours flight time, but we'll have to camp overnight to rest for the way back, so remember to pack the hammock and some food. We'll have to cloak for most of the flight, but we'll boost our speed with Slipstream. Make sure your parents know to be expecting guests.'

My current plan for the Gasper arc was to get to Valerie and retrieve her right after Gasper went off and met Rias. Rias needed all the firepower she could get, and Valerie was in for an even shittier time if Issei left her to be recaptured. Plus, a Longinus wielder would be a valuable future asset, and with any luck, we could get her to join willingly. If not, we'd drop her wherever she wanted to go and leave it at that. Slipstream was a ritual based spell that worked by connecting two points with a vortex of wind that carried the caster. This meant that we could hook it into the bleeder network and leave almost no trace of our flight, and Issei's radar profile was small enough that we shouldn't get picked up by anything. For most wind mages, Slipstream would probably put them at about 200 kilometers per hour over a decent distance, and would take most of their energy reserves. Thankfully, because Issei was part dragon and had massive elemental spell reserves, we would be Slipstreaming most of the flight, and we would be able to push the speed of sound and make the flight in under a day.

Everything was looking up for now, as Issei walked into the kitchen to grab some breakfast and talk to his parents.

Issei opened with something normal twelve-year-olds didn't ask, "Hey mom, dad, can I go to Romania over the weekend?"

Both his parents went very quiet and seemed to slow down what they were doing. After about a minute of stunned silence, Issei's father slowly put down his coffee, and his mother took a seat.

His father was the first to break the silence, "Issei, I'm going to guess that this is at Solus's request, correct?"

"Kind of? He showed me this girl who was in a lot of trouble and needed help, so I'm hoping to fly over there and rescue her."

At this, Issei's father immediately straightened up.

"A girl? What's her name? What's she like? Does she have big…"

 ***Clang***

Issei's father slumped forward, a large bump forming on the back of his head, while his mother stood behind him with a frying pan, a kind yet utterly terrifying smile on her face.

"Yes dear, please tell me more about this girl Solus wants you to travel halfway across the world for."

I decided I was not going to mention the small squadron of vampire hunters we would have to fight off when we got there.

Issei replied, scratching the back of his head "Her name is Valerie. She's a bit older than me, and has a really close friend by the name of Gasper, who she treats like a mix of a little brother and a son. She's been confined to a castle for the past four months, apparently doesn't have a good life, and has bruises on her wrists all the time, which I suspect came from her relatives."

Issei's mother dropped her drink with a crash, and the air in the room dropped a few dozen degrees.

Issei's mother looked at him with a cracked expression, "Issei, honey, please make sure that if you encounter any of her family members while you're there, you throw a few fireballs at them. I'd be happy to have Valerie stay here for as long as she likes."

Shivering in fear, Issei nodded and asked, "So, I'm cleared for the trip, right?"

"Of course, sweetie "

Slumping backwards in relief, Issei happened to glance at the clock and immediately bolted out the door.

"I'm going to be late meeting Aika! Sorry mom, got to go!"

I chuckled as Issei raced down the street, where an anxious Aika awaited us, about two seconds from blowing her top if I read the situation right.

* * *

Friday Night.

'Change of clothes times two?' "Check." 'Ten Essentials?' "Check." 'Hammock times two with rain covers?' "Check." 'Freeze dried meals times three?' "Check." 'Snacks?' "Check." 'Spare blanket?' "Check." 'Water bottles times two?' "Check." 'Backpacking stove and fuel?' "Took a chunk out of my funds, but check." 'First Aid kit?' "Definitely check." 'GPS' "Dad borrowed one from a friend, check."

Issei stood in front of a small pile of items, placing them in a backpack as I listed them off. In the mindscape, I held a list in one of my hands and a pen in the other, checking off the items we had.

'Ok, that should be everything, let's get this all in the pack and compress it down so it doesn't interfere with your mobility too much. Then we'll go to sleep, no training tonight by the way, wake up, and fly out at six am'

"Yes mom."

'How did we ever get you so sarcastic?'

"I learned from the best."

Issei finished stowing his gear, leaving the outfit for tomorrow out on the dresser, a long-sleeved shirt and pants, with a bandanna to mask his face. Issei could use basic fire magic to keep himself warm during the flight, so a heavy jacket wasn't really necessary.

The next morning, Issei headed out to the backyard, after stopping by the bathroom to apply a temporary hair dye, giving him spiky blonde locks. He then hugged his parents and promised to be back soon, spread his wings, engaged the Slipstream spell, and took off. The magic drain was noticeable, but not too bad.

As soon as we finished the majority of our climb and began to level off, I piped up.

'So, who's up for _Scrabble_?'

* * *

Nine Hours Later.

As the slipstream began to cut off about two kilometers from our target, Issei spread his wings wider, having kept them partially folded to prevent damage while riding the slipstream. Flexing them quickly to loosen them up and work out any cramps, he unfurled them to a gliding configuration and deployed his [Boosted Gear]. When our journey began, it was merely in its [Twice Critical] form, but after a year of near-constant use, it had reached its [Boosted Gear Gift] form. Letting the [Boosts] silently build up, he began double checking his cloaking spells. While the spells did not render him invisible, they masked his energy output and prevented enemies from detecting him from range. Issei dropped altitude to avoid detection, cruising a fair bit above the trees at about highway speed. After the third mental call of [Boost], Issei sent the mental order for [Transfer], directed into his eyes and ears. The forests and castle before us sharpened into clarity and lit up as if it were still day as Issei began to approach the castle. Suddenly, Issei caught something out of the corner of his eye and heard an accompanying sound, tilting his head so that he could see it better.

It appears that Gasper decided to set out a bit early, and we were able to make it just in time to see Valerie shoving him deeper into the woods, leaving herself behind in a small clearing to buy time for him to escape. As we poured on the speed to approach, twenty vampire hunters appeared from the tree line and began to encircle her. Clearly not intending to be gentle in any sense of the word, seeing as they were laughing about how they were going to "bring the filthy half-breed brat back to Lord Tepes" and waving their swords around like flags.

The mindscape suddenly felt _sharper_ as Ddraig's voice boomed out, "Gain altitude and prepare to sortie!"

Issei pumped his wings, pouring on another hundred or so meters of height.

Ddraig continued, "Current situation is as follows, hostiles number about twenty and are currently encircling the objective. All hostiles are currently ground bound and unaware of our presence! Destroy their formation from the air, then proceed to the ground for mop-up! Bank and dive-bomb on my mark… Now!"

Issei snapped his wings out, turning on a dime to align himself with the clearing, then tucking them in as he dropped from the sky like a stone. His hands were cupped at his sides, a fireball beginning to form in each one, as a fresh call of [Boost] sounded out and we gained more speed. As we rushed toward the target, I heard a familiar screech begin to sound as we gained speed. Apparently, the universe decided that half-dragons in a power dive make the same sound as Night Furies, who knew?

"Release payload early then pull up! We don't want to hit the objective! After that, land and fight it out! Good luck, Issei!"

The days of practice Issei had put in under Ddraig paid off in that exact moment, as the now confused vampire hunters looked up, only to see a winged human screeching towards them, fire burning under its wings, only for those wings to suddenly snap open and the fireballs come hurtling towards them. Issei blitzed by as twin roars of fire echoed behind him, banking hard to the right and up, riding the buffeting winds from the fireballs. We dived back down, aiming towards one of the eight vampire hunters still standing. He recovered just in time to receive Issei's gauntlet-clad fist directly to the face. As he went flying across the ground, Issei twisted midair, spinning his feet behind him and using them to skid to a stop, his gauntleted arm coming around to dig into the ground and slow him down further. Issei finished skidding to a halt about five meters away from the rest of the vampire hunters, who still outnumbered him seven to one, just in time for his gauntlet to call out a second [Boost]. Fortunately for Issei everything else was in his favor. This was a squadron of what amounted to heavily armed scouts, sent out to apprehend two untrained damphirs, one with an uncontrollable sacred gear, and the other with theirs still sealed, who had been consistently beaten down over the years and only just summoned the courage to run, not to fight back. Now they faced a well-trained Longinus wielder who had no exceptional weaknesses to their current weapons and was actively seeking to put the hurt on them. Oh, and he was also an apprentice mage who actually knew decent offensive spells. On their side, they had two crossbowmen, three spearmen, and two swordsmen.

So it wasn't even a fight, really.

Issei snapped his fingers, calling up three magic missiles, which shrieked towards the spear-wielding hunter closest to Valerie, their distinctive 'Fweeeeee' sounds echoing through the clearing. He bolted forward, twisting to the left just as a crossbow bolt flew by his right hip, then spinning further to dodge the second crossbowman's shot. With a burst of speed, he finished clearing the distance and grabbed one of the spear hafts just behind the blade. With a jerk, he wrenched the poor sap forward and drove an uppercut right into his jaw, a series of crunching sounds coming from the blow as he was lifted bodily into the air and crumpled into the ground. Still holding on to the spear, Issei spun the butt end at the second spearman, who attempted to block it. To be fair, he did get his weapon into position, Issei just smashed through it like it wasn't there. Half a second later the man was peacefully passed out on the ground, a decently sized ding in his metal helmet, while Issei held half a splintered weapon in his hands. Tossing it to the side and with his path now clear, he sprang towards the nearest crossbowman, who had just finished reloading his weapon. Grabbing the man by his collar, he hauled him around and threw him at the crossbowman, no crossbow-woman, who had just raised her weapon to fire at him, both going down in an almighty tangle of limbs and armor. Seeing as how the final spearman had been dispatched by the spells from earlier, Issei turned towards the swordsman and swordswoman, who were beginning to tremor in abject fear, before suddenly straightening up and charging with determination in their eyes. Looks like whatever training methods the vampires use to ensure loyalty and courage are damn effective. Issei merely smirked then rushed forward to meet them head on, his fists powering through the swordsman's defense, bashing the blade out of the way, with massive strikes crushing him to the ground a few seconds later. With a quick twist, Issei evaded the predictable back strike by the swordswoman, and then brought his hand down gently on her breastplate, a magic circle forming beneath it. As the poor woman looked down frozen in horror, Issei merely removed his hand, took a few steps back, and snapped his fingers. Immediately, the leather straps holding the poor lady's armor on, along with a few of the metal plates themselves, and all of her garments under the armor, were torn apart in a burst of skintight razor wind. Her decently fit body bare before us, Issei merely brought his right arm over his stomach, his left arm over the small of his back, and bowed, before saying {"Thank you for the show"} in acceptable Romanian. This was a bit too much for the poor girl, and she collapsed to the ground in a dead faint. A final call of [Boost] serving to punctuate her defeat

With all our opponents dispatched, Issei turned his attention back to Valerie, who was slumped at the foot of a nearby tree, her eyes clouded over. Gently approaching, Issei called out, "Valerie are you ok?"

No response.

Issei shifted closer, when suddenly a *clink* from his foot caused him to look down. Sitting by his foot was a golden goblet, encrusted with jewels.

My reaction, upon realizing what was going on, was as eloquent as I could make it,

'Oh, shit fucking sideways!'

"Solus, what's going on?"

'Valerie activated her Sacred Gear, Sephiroth Graal, which allows her to communicate with the principle of life itself to manipulate said force. Unfortunately, extensive or intense exposure to the life principle has adverse effects on the user's mental state, which is what I suspect happened right now. Valerie has currently lost her identity to the principle due to the shock of awakening the gear, and I have no idea how to get her back out.'

"How is she lost, exactly?"

'Primarily an overflow of information and souls, her soul is bound to what amounts to a scoop for the ocean of souls, and she just fell in after staring at the scoop for too long.'

"So if she knew where her soul needed to go, she could find her way back right?"

'Yes, why?'

"And dragons have really big souls and life forces, right?"

'Again, yes, why are you asking me this?'

"Because I'm going to do this"

With a noise like firecrackers, the power diffusers that Issei wore to mask his presence shattered, as an aura of energy engulfed him, his vitality blazing like a beacon.

Issei's voice boomed throughout the mindscape, "Solus, Ddraig, join in, we need to create a beacon bright enough for Valerie's soul to see it and get home to her body!"

I let myself have a wry smile, "Well our cover is shot to shit, and I don't have much, but I'll do what I can."

Ddriag was much more succinct, "I'm with you all the way partner!"

Both of us did our best to release our vitality, until suddenly, with a *pop*, we were standing behind Issei, our bodies formed into some sort of astral projection.

Ddraig turned to me, "Solus, you look different."

I looked down at myself. Gone were my usual athletic shorts and t-shirt, in their place was a red tunic with a brown cloak over top, the hood down to expose my head. Issei kneeled in front of us, Valerie's head cradled on his lap.

He called at the top of his lungs, "Valerie, listen to my voice if you can hear me! You are not life, you are merely its partner! You have to get back to your body, or otherwise you'll never see Gasper again!"

Valerie, her soul still clearly lost, croaked out, "but where is it?"

With a mighty call of [Explosion]! The pillar burst out even further, as Issei's stored power flooded into it.

"Look for the beacon Valerie, the pillar of draconic life! Your body is right next to it, so fight and return to it!"

Seconds passed as nothing appeared to happen, until, just as Issei was going to try again, Valerie's eyes cleared and she began to sit up.

"You…You saved me. Why?"

Issei gave her a sheepish smile, "A friend of mine knew of your plight and told me about it. Even though he could do nothing, he still told me, and I decided to do something about it. It looks like I made it just in time. But I can explain more later, right now I have to get moving or otherwise we'll have to fight the big game, and I'm not quite at that level yet. Do you want to come with me?"

"Yes."

"Excellent."

Me and Ddraig's projections rapidly faded, as Issei's fingers moved rapidly, rebuilding his suppressors so that way when we touched down we could stay hidden for a bit, before applying a few to Valerie as well. As he finished, his enhanced ears picked up the distinctive sound of unprotected teleportation spells going off.

"These will help mask your magic output, making it harder for others to find you, now let's get moving."

Issei picked up Valerie bridal style and rocketed into the sky. Looking back, we saw a medley of various factions converging on our previous location, with a few fliers eventually seeing us and giving chase. What is interesting is that in all the DxD anime, almost every flier with the exception of Issei and Vali flew in linear paths and treated flight as more a way to get into position then a true method of combat. What this meant was that when it came to the skies, as of right now, Issei and Vali could outfly pretty much everything on earth, excepting maybe some other dragons. So we lost our enemies pretty quickly in the local forests and fog. After a lovely little campout, in which Issei made sure Valerie was comfortable and fed, we woke up rested and prepared for the journey home, Issei wrapping Valerie in blankets to make sure she would stay warm while in the Slipstream, then tying her on so that way we didn't run the risk of dropping her.

* * *

Nine hours later, we were touching down in Issei's backyard, only to be immediately glomped by his mother. Valerie looked decidedly uncomfortable, until Mrs. Hyoudou, assured that her son had made it back in one piece, shifted her attention to her.

I began to panic, worried that she would get angry at us for having risked our lives to bring home another mouth to feed.

My fears were proven unfounded when Valerie was immediately hugged, brought inside, and engaged in conversation. After about ten minutes of this, during which Issei put his supplies away and sat down with them, Issei's mother exploded out of her seat toward her husband, and said, "She's the daughter I never had! Can we please keep her?"

Never thought I'd ever hear an adult say that about a kid.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Chapter is out, second pre-canon harem member added, one more to go. Valerie will be assuming the role of [Cleric]. Since the pre-canon DxD timeline is a nightmare, I hope I got the dates right. Gods, this thing was way longer than I expected, and I couldn't find a good way to split it.**

 **So yeah, whenever Ddraig's projection appears, Solus gets dragged along for the ride.**

 **As always read, rate, and send reviews.**


	6. Aftermath and Founding the Party

After Mr. Hyoudou's affirmations that yes, Valerie could stay a bit, the topic of conversation shifted back to Valerie and Issei. The first order of business was whether Issei's parents could afford to support Valerie, which was surprisingly easy, as Mr. Hyoudou had recently been promoted, largely thanks to the magical training he was undergoing under Issei improving his mathematical skills and job performance. There was also the unused guest bedroom Asia used in the original timeline, and Mrs. Hyoudou had plenty of spare linens to make it up, so Valerie did have somewhere to sleep. The second order of business was how to get Valerie the schooling she would need, which me and Issei would be in charge of. I already made sure Issei had picked up some basic coding skills in his studies, so it shouldn't take too long to figure out how to hack the local records and get an alias for Valerie set up. The conversation next turned to Issei himself, and seeing as Valerie definitely knew of the supernatural world, we decided to tell her about what was going on.

"So Valerie, I think I should explain myself a bit further, before you finalize your decision to stay here. As you may know, I am this generation's Red Dragon Emperor and wielder of the [Boosted Gear]. What you likely did not know is that I have a second being bound to my soul, the friend who told me about you earlier."

Her stare was deadpan. "What."

"The way he explained it, when he died in whatever world he came from, his soul was diverted from the afterlife and instead sent out to serve as an advisor to certain people, such as myself. Apparently in his dimension, our world was a story he read, so he's able to use information from that story to give me advice and help me out."

"What sort of information?"

I decided to help here, once again speaking through Issei, as although Issei managed to learn Romanian, and had translated for his parents earlier, I still only spoke English.

'For example, Valerie, I can confirm Gasper made it out unharmed, though he is now aligned with the devils, and you can see him again in a few years, when Issei is in his second year of high school.'

Valerie's expression became a mixture of relieved and angry.

"You better not be joking with me, and why can't I go storming after him now?"

'Because my knowledge only pertains to the original timeline, and I only know where he'll be at that time, and it's the most opportune time for you to reunite. Unless you want to try storming the house of a Satan, in the Underworld, untrained, with a glitchy sacred gear, and weakened from several years of what amounted to house arrest.'

She sighed, "Well I suppose a guarantee of future events is better than nothing."

'Ok, anyways, I wanted to provide some info that should be useful to both you and Issei. From what I remember about [Sephiroth Graal] and already told Issei, it allows you to contact the "Principle of Life" and control it to some degree. This originally allowed you to do such things as reverse aging, provide regenerative immortality, resurrect the dead, and improve the bodies of anything alive. The reason for your versatility is that your version of sacred gear generated three goblets instead of one, allowing for greater versatility. Hell, with enough training, you could probably be able to have short range or line of sight total biokinesis. And that's completely ignoring a [Balance Breaker], which I think we can all agree is too dangerous for you to use.'

"What?"

'Anything alive, either within a few meters of you or that you are looking at, you can alter the form of it. You could alter any organism, and possibly a few constructs, to any form feasible. Your only limits are that you need to have a soul or something alive to work with, and the more you push yourself, the more dangerous it is for you, so the complete overclocking of your power [Balance Breaker] provides could consume your soul entirely.'

"How bad is the danger?"

'Let me put it this way, [Sephiroth Graal] is considered on the same tier as Issei's [Boosted Gear], somewhere in the middle of the thirteen [Longinuses] but if you removed the insanity and soul destruction drawback, it would be able to make the top four. Hell, there's a top four [Longinus] called [Annihilation Maker] that literally creates any monster the user can imagine, without the madness restriction of [Sephiroth Graal], has the potential to destroy the world, and in a quick skirmish, I would have to flip a coin to decide which of the two would be ahead at the end.'

Everyone in the room had the same idea.

"Holy shit."

I smirked, 'You could probably build that using the biokinesis, it would just require some holy organism as a starting point.'

"Holy. Shit."

'So anyhow, we should probably work on training you, as well as seeing if you can develop some sort of life magic to augment your sacred gear abilities.'

She looked puzzled, "How would I do that?"

'Good question, the best place to start would be your race, any abilities vampires have that you remember?'

"I heard rumors that most of them could shapeshift into…"

'Let me guess, wolf, bat, or mist?'

"Only the second, and there's also something about shadows and fog, but I only heard rumors."

'Oh, that's perfect! First off, shapeshifting can tie in to life magics, so we know you at least should be able to work them with enough practice, and we also have potential for shadow magics!'

"You really like working with spells, don't you?"

'Yep, my plan for Issei is a battlemage build, using physical power augmented by overwhelming magic. Anyways, we'll save your training for later, and it's your decision whether you want to train or not. Right now, …'

Issei cut in, "We want to know if you're staying with us permanently or if you want to head somewhere else."

Valerie smiled, "Of course I want to stay with my rescuer, anyone who would fly halfway around the world to fight off twenty men and rescue me certainly gives more of a damn than everyone else I ever knew, excepting Gasper."

Issei's parents smiled, "In that case, welcome to the family."

* * *

The next morning.

After having gotten Valerie settled into the guest bedroom and gone to sleep, Issei woke up to something warm enveloping his right arm and side. As Issei's training had made him a very genre-savvy individual, he relaxed his arm and rotated his head to see what was going on. The cause was revealed to be a sleeping Valerie, her body cuddled up to Issei's. Slowly her eyes fluttered open.

"Good morning, Issei."

Issei replied cautiously, "Um, good morning to you too, Valerie?"

Valerie smiled, then began to climb out of the bed, the clothes she borrowed the night before from Issei hanging off her in a strangely cute way.

Issei, his brain beginning its reboot protocols, spoke up, "Valerie, why were you in my bed this morning?"

Valerie adopted a meek look, "I was trying to fall asleep in the guest bedroom you set up for me, but I started getting lost in the voice again. Since I know what your soul feels like, I decided I would spend the night with you to keep myself safe. Your soul, it's nice to be near. There are a few others like it in brightness or warmth, but yours is the only one I can trust to lead me back."

I felt worry begin to flood Issei's mindscape, as he posed his next question.

"Valerie, I have to head to school, and Solus hasn't had me learn enough programming for me to sneak you in yet, but I'm close. Will you be alright spending the day with my mom while I'm out?"

Valerie smiled and waved him off.

"I should be fine, its only when I'm tired or trying to sleep that the voice becomes a problem."

Issei pulled a piece of paper out of his bag and scribbled something on it. "Alright, but if anything comes up, contact me at once. This is my cell number, if I don't answer on the second try, use magic. The house has a minor drain network, and my mother can cast communication spells, so talk to her to contact me."

"Ok, bye Issei! Be back soon, we need to go out after school."

"Why is that?"

Valerie's expression turned feral "I don't have any clothes, and your mother said you would help me and her buy some this afternoon."

Issei's body broke out in cold sweat while I keeled over laughing my ass off at the torture he was about to undergo.

* * *

One Year Later, approximately Two and a half years until canon.

*Clang*

Once again, Issei was sparring, only this time, I wasn't the one on the other end of the fist, it was Valerie. They stood facing each other, his gauntlet locked on the edge of her glaive as she applied force with her right hand, hoping to force his hand down and stab past his guard. An echo of [Boost] sounded out from the gauntlet. They remained locked like this for a fraction of a second, before Issei attempted to grab the shaft of Valerie's weapon and use his standard pull strike, but Valerie was having none of that, and quickly retracted her blade back to a ready position. Her weapon was an invention of her own design, built using her sacred gear and the life magic affinity she had developed over the past year. It was composed of bone overcharged with life energy, hardening it and granting it mystical properties. Because none of us had any better ideas, we decided to rip off _Warhammer 40k_ and called the enhanced substance wraithbone.

They were currently in the middle of an abandoned warehouse complex Issei had picked up on the cheap, and was currently gathering the funds to renovate. He, Ddraig, his parents, Aika, and Valerie were rather intrigued by my idea to buy an abandoned warehouse and convert it into a clubhouse of sorts, a mixture of a training facility, home away from home, workshop, and base of operations. Not only that, but the key of the plan was to take a page from someone else's book and convert part this base into a nightclub, with the base forming backrooms and the club itself providing a source of income for Issei in the front.

The two fighters rushed at each other again, Valerie spinning her glaive one-handed for a swipe at Issei's legs, while her left hand reached to her pocket and threw a few small specks at us. With a quick pulse of her magic, the specks revealed themselves to be bone fragments, as manacles of bone sprung out from them to entangle Issei's limbs, as he leaped over Valerie's swipe. As Issei began to come back down, bound in Valerie's attack, his body burst into white-hot flames, charring the bone to ash and letting him land safely. Its purpose served, Issei's fire aura shifted to form two fireballs in his hands, which he then threw at Valerie. Valerie threw down another handful of bones to form a wall of bone to stop the fireballs. Well, it stopped the first one, but the second one blasted through the charred remains the first left behind, forcing Valerie to roll left, giving Issei the time to close the distance. Issei cocked his fist back over his shoulder, ready to deliver a strike, when he was forced to roll left, as Valerie had reached into her sleeve pouch and withdrawn a chicken bone, which she had rapidly converted to a second glaive, nearly impaling Issei. This time Issei was successful in grabbing Valerie's glaive. Pulling her towards him and releasing the glaive, just as bone spikes erupted from it, Issei's fist sped toward Valerie's neck, his clawed fingers stopping just millimeters from her jugular.

"I win."

* * *

A few minutes later, Issei and Valerie were walking back to his house

Valerie winced as her muscles decided to voice their opinion on the fight , "Dammit, I thought I would beat you there."

Issei sighed, "Don't worry about it Valerie, remember, I learn several times faster than the average human and I've been training longer than you have, hell your progress alone over the past year is absurd for most people, how do you do it?"

She smiled, "I use a bit of life magic to enhance my body and mind, in a manner similar to your [Boosts], it's nowhere near as effective, but it helps me get ahead."

I piped up, 'That's incredible! Why didn't I think of that?'

Issei smirked, "Maybe because you're an ass who thinks that anything he didn't think of himself won't work?"

'Probably, anyways, we're meeting Aika at your house, right?'

As soon as I said this any future conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Issei's house, Aika standing by the front door.

"Speak of the devil…"

Issei walked over to Aika, her locket hidden under her shirt and her flute nowhere to be seen, likely left at home. He opened the door and ushered her inside.

"Aika! Thank you so much for coming, how long were you waiting for?"

"It's no trouble Issei, I was only there for about five minutes before I saw you. So what was this thing you wanted to talk about?

We sat down in the living room, a few snacks and drinks laid out in a spread, as Issei launched into the now standard description of what he was and that the supernatural was real, flaring his wings, tail, and [Boosted Gear] to prove it. By the end Aika just stood there gaping like a fish, while Valerie was trying not to snicker at her expression.

Issei continued, "So anyways, I have something to show you guys and a deal that comes with it."

He walked up to his room and returned carrying a brown briefcase. Seeting it down on the table, he deactivated a series of wards, then entered a combination to unlock it, before opening it up to reveal a thin stack of papers.

Valerie and Aika both seemed unamused and underwhelmed.

Issei smiled, "I know these don't look like much but these are what I have termed, [Character Sheets]. As I already mentioned, the Devils have their [Evil Pieces], the Angels have their [Brave Saints], and the Fallen Angels are beginning to develop artificial [Sacred Gears]. These are my way of leveling the playing field."

Saying this he removed one of the papers, revealing a strange contract written in a red ink.

"The [Character Sheet] is a form of contract written in a dragon's blood, my blood to be specific. By signing the sheet, I use my power to temporarily infuse draconic energy into your body, which then creates permanent reservoirs of said energy for you to call on, and grants you some draconic aspects, specifically the wings and tails. Each sheet infuses the energy differently, boosting different aspects. In return for this power boost, I gain a companion in the [Party] which means you function similarly to a peerage member, with a few less restrictions. I don't gain any sort of compulsion magic, meaning I can't force you to do something for me that you don't want to do. What I'm asking right now is if you want to sign on to the [Party] and join me in the future."

They looked confused for a moment, then looked at each other, nodded and said, "We accept your offer."

Issei looked shocked, "Are you sure? This is a pretty big decision."

Valerie smiled, "I had a feeling you were working on something like this for a while, so I've been thinking it over for the past few months. I'm certain that I want to do this.

'

Aika shyly spoke up herself, "You've always been able to help me, whether it be homework or favors, even after Valerie showed up, and I want to help you in return, my dragon knight."

Issei nodded and pulled two sheets out of the briefcase. Closing it and reengaging the wards he said, "Ok, Aika, why don't you take the [Bard] classification? It's a good all-rounder with a focus on social skills and charisma, but its biggest affinity is with music, and we both know how good you are with that flute. Valerie, for you I'm going to offer the [Cleric] classification, as it boosts one's connection with the spiritual world and should help stabilize your life magic and sacred gear."

Taking the sheets, Issei pricked his thumb, and placed a few drops of his blood into three containers, then instructed Aika and Valerie to do the same, mixing their blood with his, they wrote their names on the dotted line, then Issei signed his own name on a separate line. As soon as he finished Aika's, a whirlwind of energy blasted through the room as the sheet flew up into her chest, where it seemed to melt into her body with a flash of light. A few seconds to write later, and the same was happening to Valerie.

With a mighty *crack*, wings and tails unfurled from both of their backs, Aika's being the same crimson with pinkish–tan membrane on the wings as Issei's. Valerie, on the other hand, possessed dark purple scales with a forked tail and blood-red membranes, likely a testament to her vampire blood.

Issei let loose with a shit-eating grin, "Ladies, welcome to the [Party]. My house might not be a tavern, but it'll do for now. Let's celebrate!"

* * *

 **Author's Note: Sorry this one took a bit longer than usual, I had a lot of ideas and they didn't want to slot together.**

 **Last pre-canon party member should be in the next chapter, see if you can guess who.**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review.**


	7. Taming the Beast

**Author's Note:**

 **I put this note here to clear up any confusion. Upon some reflection, I realized I could do some cooler things later on if I had Valerie become the [Cleric] instead of the [Druid], so I am going back and editing to suit it. Not much will change in regards to Valerie, except her** **biokinesis will be focused more on a vampiric theme of bones and blood, with a bit of shadow magic thrown in, instead of the leaves, trees and vines the was originally going to have. I rather like the idea of "Valerie standing in a gothic chapel, [Sephiroth Graal] raised in one hand with her glaive in the other, as she stands behind a stone altar dressed like a vampire queen of old." more than "Valerie meditating in a magic circle deep in the woods, the grail before her feet as vines dance around her".**

* * *

A few weeks later.

Issei, Valerie, and Aika stood in a corner of the warehouse base, still fairly run down and awaiting the funds for the major renovations, but with some new minor features added. Valerie had requested that we meet out here today, primarily because she used a chapel-like setup to practice her life magic and [Sacred Gear]. While Issei's soul was good for locating her body, the ritual circles inscribed on the floor helped her stabilize her powers and practice her abilities in biokinesis and soul manipulation safely. Aika was brought along to work on her own spellcasting, a sub category of wind magic that centered around music and vibrations. Currently, Aika was showing off her first spell, some kind of air elemental controlled by the song she played. As the notes of her flute echoed through the room, a small energy spike occurred and was subsequently hidden by Issei, while a swirling vortex formed near Aika's head. With a few deft presses of the keys, this vortex shot forward and began to move around the clearing, spinning and diving through the air to impact a small wall of bone spines Valerie had set up earlier. On its impact, the spines rattled, but held. Aika continued to move the spirit in time with her music, suddenly tapping her foot and launching into a spinning dance, as a second, then a third spirit formed by her and began to move in time with the first, forming defensive walls, then cycling out in offensive blasts, then back to a defensive orbit. A few seconds later, the elementals vanished, and Aika slumped to the ground, Issei and Valerie bolting to her side.

Issei and Valerie said in synch, "Aika, are you ok?"

She was beginning to sit up and was panting heavily. With a shaky breath she replied, "I'm fine. *Pant* I just got. *Pant* Caught up in the song. *Pant* Didn't realize. *Pant* How much energy. *Pant* I was burning through."

Issei and Valerie sighed, as Valerie summoned a green magic circle to replenish Aika's energy.

As Aika staggered to her feet, Issei's wards pinged something magical coming into range closely followed by a second and third ping together.

"Heads up, we've got company."

Issei dropped into a crouch, [Boosted Gear] deployed and calling its first [Boost]. To his left, Valerie stood, her glaive ready to support him while her body was positioned so that Issei's more resilient body could protect her. Aika shifted back, ready to support in what little capability she could at the moment.

None of them were truly ready for the flaming demon horse that blasted through the doors, followed closely behind by a girl on her own horse, which a headless knight was steering. While their initial surprise let their foes gain plenty of ground, Issei recovered quickly enough to cast an Explosive Rune in front of them, which the horse promptly ran over and was blown into the roof. The second horse rearing, its riders struggling to remain mounted. They managed to gain control, just as the flaming horse crashed into the ground, somehow managing to land upright. Huh. Must've rolled a natural 20 on its landing check or something. Anyways, the second it touched the ground, it was off like a gunshot, blasting back through the door, the other rider reeling around to follow.

All of the party looked at each other, the unspoken question of whether to chase after them or not hanging in the air. In the end, their curiosity won out and they all spread their wings and took off after the riders. Their energy signatures were masked, and they were making sure to stay out of sight, even though most of the area was abandoned, darting through alleys and around windows. Even so, not much can challenge dragons in the sky, so they rapidly caught up to the rider, still chasing her quarry. She appeared to be reaching for a loop of something metallic, when the creature in front of her seemed to snort, then vanished into the ground in a trail of flames.

The girl leaped off her horse and inspected the flame tracks, the knight who had been steering it remaining mounted. A few seconds later, she screamed skyward in a fit of rage and despair, pounding the ground with her fist. While she was distracted, Issei and company took this time to land on the concrete a bit further away.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

I piped up to Issei, 'Wow, that's a pretty good Team Four Star impression.'

Issei snickered, then glared at me, as his had alerted her to our presence. In response, I sent him a smug expression.

The girl scrambled to her feet, her knight, which I suspected was a dullahan, galloping towards her side and passing her the loops, which she uncoiled into a whip made of some sort of cable, likely silvered in some way.

She glared at us, "Who are you?"

Issei rolled his eyes, "The ones you nearly ran over about five minutes ago chasing whatever the hell that was."

Her face went red with embarrassment and she flinched.

Issei pointed at the respective members of the party, "Anyways, I'm Issei, that's Valerie, and that's Aika."

Now, let it be said that I'm not dumb, but I do have trouble focusing, so it sometimes takes me a while to put all the pieces together and remember information. This was the case right now, as all the pieces finally clicked into place and I realized who we were dealing with.

'Issei, I know who this is'

Just after I said this she spoke up, "I'm Kiyome Abe and this is No-head Honda, I'm sorry for chasing that Nightmare right into you."

Issei's reply was terse, 'Info, now please.'

'Ok, as she said her name is Kiyome Abe, no sacred gear or major religious faction affiliation, two years your senior, currently enrolled at Kuoh Academy, where Valerie is going next year, member of the tennis club, current affiliation is to her family, who are a legacy of beast tamers, she's likely hunting or attempting to capture the Nightmare she was chasing earlier. I would recommend asking why."

Issei smiled and I felt a sense of smugness from him, "Why were you doing that anyways, and do you need any help?"

I was shocked, 'What!'

Issei replied smugly, 'Oh, come on, she clearly needs some help if her reaction from earlier was any indication, and you owe me for that comment earlier.'

She looked offended, "My reasons for this are my own, and I don't need your help, I have everything under control."

The whole party seemed to be on the same wavelength as Issei said, "So what was that little fit I saw three seconds ago?"

Abe grit her teeth and snarled, "I just lost the trail for a bit, I'll search the town and find the nightmare in an hour, mark my words!"

Issei's expression returned to the now-familiar vulpine grin, "Really, so you don't want the help of someone who could scry the location and have it to you in a few minutes without you moving an inch and can give you aerial support in chasing it? I guess we'll head home then."

And that was the straw that broke the camel's back, "Fine! Do your stupid, whatever it is."

I started laughing, 'Can you say, Tsundere?'

Issei looked confused, 'Solus, what are you talking about, that sort of cliché doesn't happen in reality.'

* * *

Five minutes later

We were flying next to Abe as she rode in the direction of the Nightmare's current location, somewhere deep in the woods around Kuoh.

Issei flew up beside Abe and spoke up, "So Abe, why are you tracking this thing down?"

Abe grit her teeth. She ground out, "Another family of beast tamers is seeking a blood alliance with us, and they're requesting my hand in marriage. My dad gave me this test as a way to prove that I could offer more than the marriage. Nightmares are notoriously hard to capture, due to their ability to teleport while running after a certain amount of time, and their flaming ethereal bodies making it hard to get a good grip with any device to capture them. If I capture one, I get out of the marriage, if I don't, I can expect to be engaged in a few years. I've treated the whip so it will affect the body, and I've got some calming herbs in my saddlebags, the problem is cornering the damn thing so it can't teleport."

Valerie called out from behind, "I'm sensing something major up ahead!"

With any luck, the cliff we had been riding along the bottom of was not in our way.

Everyone who inhabited Issei's body went on alert. Ddraig called out, "Issei! You and your party go around and cut off its escape routes!" I added, "Have Aika deploy two wind spirits if we can't cover all the routes."

As we zoomed ahead, we were able to analyze the situation more efficiently. To Abe's left, the cliff wall ran, about ten meters high. On the other side was a pond, about ten meters in diameter, with about twenty meters between its closest edge and the cliff. The entire battlefield was covered in light forest, not quite thick enough to hinder visibility, but enough that any high-speed diving through the canopy would be ill-advised. The nightmare, its flaming body easily visible through the trees, was trotting alongside it, quickly gaining speed as the noise of our approach reached it. Issei bolted ahead of it along the cliff, blocking a direct route from Abe. Valerie took the lower shore of the lake, her higher experience meaning Abe wouldn't have to divert as much attention to supporting her, while Aika, with her lower combat experience, took the shore closer to Issei, so he could support her as needed. The nighmare, realizing it's encirclement, wheeled around and charged at the lake, trying to leap over the water. As it rose over the lake, Issei held up his hand and cast a spell, while Aika began to play her flute.

"Magic Missile!"

Screeching through the trees, the bolt of wind energy crashed into the nightmare, and was soon followed by two balls of semi-sapient wind. Its trajectory now diverted, it crashed to the ground on Valerie's side of the lake. Valerie raced to block its escape route, while Issei and Abe moved in closer to trap it more thoroughly, Aika remaining on the other side of the lake in case it tried to jump again. As the nightmare regained its footing, Issei, Valerie, and Abe finished their encirclement. With its back to the lake, and not enough room to build speed for a jump or a teleport, the demonic horse reared and prepared to charge. At this, Abe leapt off Honda's horse, her whip uncoiling behind her. With a cry, she landed on the ground and swung the whip forward, its tip racing out and coiling around the neck of the beast. The second the cable went taught, the beast bolter. With all the force she could muster, Abe yanked on the cable, bringing the beast to rotate around her, drawing closer with each rotation as she gradually reeled the whip in. Once the nightmare got within about two meters, Abe quickly switched to a one-handed grip, her left hand darting down to her belt and pulling out a small yellow sphere, about the size of a tennis ball, no wait, it was a tennis ball. Throwing the ball at the nightmare's face it exploded into a fine white powder, which was soon sucked into the beast's nostrils. Whatever the substance was seemed to rapidly tire the nightmare, but in one last feat of enrgy, it reared up at full strength and yanked an off-guard into the air, sending her sailing into the pond, the impact with the water stunning her. Issei immediately dashed to help her, while calling out to Valerie, "Make sure it doesn't escape!"

Valerie darted forward and speared her bone glaive into the ground, where the tip exploded outwards, burrowing through the earth and reemerging to quickly form a lattice, that gradually expanded to form a cage with a roof. The reason Valerie couldn't do this now was that the nightmare would have jumped out of it or bashed through the walls in the time it took to set it up. Meanwhile, Issei was dragging a soaked and hacking Abe out of the pond, both of their clothes soaked and clinging to their skin. Aika, having arrived when Valerie set the cage up, and Valerie herself went beet red as they saw exactly what Issei's body looked like under his clothes, every muscle defined like he was chiseled from marble. Abe slowly got back to her feet, then looked down and quickly covered herself, realizing her shirt was soaked through and Issei was about five feet away. Her expression soon lost its embarrassment and rage when she realized that Issei wasn't looking at her, instead he was focused on a small patch of ground. Suddenly, a blast of white-hot flame erupted from the ground and condensed into a small furnace-like ball about a foot off the ground. With a second wave of his hand, air began to circulate, forming a drying function. Issei turned around to inform Abe that he was done, only to freeze and let his eyes slowly drift down towards her chest, which was nicely pushed up by her arms, the soaked shirt doing nothing to hide her cleavage. As Issei was focused on Abe's chest, he didn't notice her own eyes glance first at the fire he made for her, then at ssei's own soaked clothes.

Both me and Ddraig decided to snap him out of it, "Issei!"

Issei went bright red and quickly bowed, said "Sorry", then moved so that his back was to the fire and Abe, motioning for her to get closer and dry herself off. Upon seeing this, Aika and Valerie started laughing their asses off. As soon as she realized what she had been doing and what Issei had done, Abe's blush only grew greater.

About five minutes later Abe and Issei were dry again, and Issei cancelled the fire spell, immediately, Abe's fist slammed into the back of his skull with a cry of "Pervert!", her face still beet red. Aika and Valerie, having almost finished their earlier laughter, resumed their cries with a vengeance.

Issei called from the ground, "I said I was sorry!"

"No, you weren't you pervert! I bet you planned this, didn't you?"

"So let me get this straight, I somehow managed to train a nightmare, a feat seen as near impossible, with no prior experience, got it to Kouh, then somehow learned of your quest, set the nightmare free with explicit orders to randomly run to me while I was in that warehouse, destroy a door and make me pay to have it replaced, then lead you on a wild goose chase so that I can step in with two other girls, while it has been instructed to teleport to the nearest body of water, something I doubt this horse likes…"

"They don't, nightmares abhor water and only go near it if they have no other alternative."

"So how did I tame one to do that?"

"Um, ok fine you win!"

Issei smiled, "Again, I'm sorry about the staring, but as far as Solus and Ddraig can tell, my impulse control is a bit unstable, and it appears it just failed right there,"

"Who are Solus and Ddraig?"

Issei's mental sigh was immense.

'I'm going to have to give the speech again, aren't I?'

'You're going to have to give the speech again.'

* * *

Five minutes of exposition later.

Abe had moved over to the cage while we waited, having called someone on her cell phone to pick up the nightmare, and was currently doing something with the nightmare. She looked up at us.

"I have one question."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Can I join your party?"

The current party let out a flat, "What."

Issei decided to elaborate, "Why do you want to join?"

"Because you were nice to me. No one in my family besides my father was willing to help me escape the engagement, and the only help he was able to give me was this quest to prove my worth. By joining up to you, I can ally the family with a useful faction, and gain some personal power so that if this sort of issue comes up again, I have somewhere to go. Plus, you all seem really nice, even though you, Issei, are a major pervert."

"Solus said I would have been worse if he didn't step in."

Abe started chuckling, "Oh gods, that would have been impressive."

Issei turned to the party, "So what do you guys think?"

I was the first to comment, "I want dinosaur cavalry! Make her your [Ranger]!"

"How the hell would we do that?"

"Valerie resurrects a fossil, Abe tames it, simple as that."

"Ddraig?"

"I'm all for it Issei, she seems like an individual who will grow to great power."

"Aika?"

"She seems a little prissy, but she does need our help, plus, the [Party] is kind of small right now, let her in."

"Valerie?"

"You helped me on the word of a friend. It would be rude of me not to do the same."

"Ok, Abe, looks like you're in. We'll finalize the paperwork tonight. Here's my address, meet us there."

Issei handed her a slip of paper, then the party spread its wings and took off, Abe calling out behind us,

"Thank you Issei! I promise you won't regret this!"

* * *

 **Author's Note Part 2:**

 **So, urgent things like retcons and delays will be noted in Author's notes at the top, with the lower ones containing general information. Anyways, Issei now has a ranger, and I've completed every major pre-canon event. So it is my pleasure to announce Timeskip Shenanigans, the small things that occur during the ****time skips that I can't make a full chapter out of. While that is going on, I will also be setting up a poll, in order to determine who to use as Issei's [Fighter] and [Barbarian], it is accessible from my profile.**


	8. Timeskip Shenanigans

**Do you even lift?:**

Issei had headed out to the rail yard to train, and the rest of the party had come along with him. Having finished his 10-kilometer run, 100 push-up, 100 sit-up, and 100 squat warm-up, he got back to his feet and awaited further instructions, the rest of the party taking a break, as Aika could only do half of the warm-up, and Valerie and Abe were a bit burned out.

Ddraig opened up the conversation, 'Ok Issei, why don't we start with weighted pull-ups today?'

"Fine."

Issei bucked on a pair of metal anklets and walked over to a rail crane, used to move shipping containers, that was still here, then climbed onto the horizontal beam. He soon began to do pull-ups, grunting with exertion. Abe giggled.

"Do you even lift?"

Issei finished his set, then dropped down.

With a slight smirk on his face, he replied, "Follow me."

He led Abe over to a set of free weights, and pointed at a dumbbell that looked to weigh about 15 kilograms.

"Try and lift that."

"This'll be easy", Abe laughed, then reached down and yanked on the weight, nearly falling over when it refused to budge an inch. Recovering, she reached down with both hands, but still couldn't budge it.

"You glued it to the ground you ass!"

"No, I didn't." And with that, Issei walked up and lifted the weight one-handed and held it over his head.

"What I did do, is place the weight in a synthetic gravity well, meaning that you have to lift the equivalent of about 2000 times the mass of the dumbbell."

"So you mean…"

"Yeah, these anklets weigh a couple dozen metric tons. So as you can clearly see, yes, I do indeed lift."

* * *

 **Open for Business:**

It was late at night, as Issei led the party and his parents through the abandoned warehouse district of Kuoh. They soon approached a bustling club, the words "Grand Opening" hung above the door, as a small line stretched in front of it. Issei instead diverted his path to a dilapidated side entrance, placing his palm against a high-tech scanner while pushing out some of his personal magic. With a *Beep* the scanner unlocked the door, as the multiple wards Issei had placed deactivated. Issei opened the door and ushered everyone in. Once they were all inside, Issei slipped in and reached out to flip on the lights, revealing the new base of the [Party]. Issei had funded the renovation out of his own pocket, his heightened intellect letting him preform online consultation work to earn the cash. On the other side of the sound-proofed walls was Issei's club, "The Tower", which he owned under an alias. On this side of the walls was a home away from home, which Aika and Abe were quick to christen "The Dragon's Den". It was a three-tiered construction, with the second floor containing storage rooms and emergency bedrooms, in case someone needed to spend the night. The main ground floor contained a luxury bathroom, an indoor hot tub, a living space, a kitchen area, a dining area, a large training area, and a door to the back of the The Tower itself, so that Issei could use the space when the club was closed. Below everything else was a soundproofed basement that contained the workshops, ritual systems, and armory. It was secure, it was comfy, and it was a perfect place to hang out, prepare, or train.

* * *

 **DODGE!:**

The party was at the newly-renovated warehouse base, with Abe poking around in one of the upper storage rooms. Suddenly she called out, "Hey Issei!"

"What?"

"I didn't know you had a tennis ball machine"

It took Issei a few seconds to realize what she had found, and then his face paled at the memory, "Oh, that, it's not exactly for tennis balls, don't touch it."

She came down looking confused and holding a gray metal sphere with red writing on it, "Wait, what are these things?"

Issei shuddered, "Tungsten spheres inscribed with inactive explosive runes."

Abe quirked an eyebrow, "So, what is what amounts to a cannon doing here?"

Issei sighed and rubbed at phantom pains, "Ddraig has some, _interesting_ , ideas when it comes to dodging practice."

She stared at him, "Seriously?

Issei's voice was deadpan, "Seriously."

* * *

 **Oops:**

*Ding*Dong*

Issei walked downstairs to answer the door. It was probably Aika, her family had to leave the country on business.

With a *click* Issei opened the door. And was immediately struck dumb by what lay beyond it.

The general facial structure, glasses and hair were definitely Aika's, but that body certainly wasn't.

"Hey, Issei!"

"Aika?"

"Yep! I hit a growth spurt while I was with my grandparents, and well, this is the result."

To clarify, the canon Aika, while certainly attractive, was probably somewhere in the middle of the pack, considering the people she went to school with, such as Rias and Akeno. The Aika in front of us was about the same height as before, but had a figure that was pushing _Gabriel_ levels of hourglass.

Issei's voice was flat, 'Solus.'

I nervously replied, 'Yes?'

'I thought you said she looked decently attractive in the canon timeline, not a bombshell like this.'

'She didn't, we must have done something, let me think for a bit.'

Aika shifted her feet, "So, can I come in?"

Issei promptly replied, with a bit more enthusiasm than was necessary, "Sure! Just get settled in, Solus has some explaining to do."

Aika seemed to be worried, but there was something else in her expression, "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but something happened that caused you to have that growth spurt."

Aika giggled and made a dismissive gesture, "Oh, I already figured that out. When it hit and my breasts were bigger than any others in my family, I knew something was up. I figured the exact reason out two days ago. I didn't call because I wanted to see your reaction."

Issei perked up at that, "Really? What happened?"

"You said that the [Bard] classification affected my charisma, right? So, I suspect that it did something and gave me a second, magically boosted, puberty."

I decided to add my own opinion, 'The scary thing is, that it kind of makes sense, but why the hell did it manifest like this? [Bard] was only supposed to boost musical and social ski- Oh son of a bitch. In boosting social skills, the magic affected some of her hormone centers, which likely led to this. It shouldn't happen to anyone else, because [Bard] is the only class with that infusion pattern. Wait a minute, you received a full body boost, right Issei?'

'Yeah?'

'Oh gods, puberty is going to hit you like a ton of bricks.'

Issei sighed, "Ok, Aika, I've got news from Solus. Your theory is right, and I'm sorry for this, we didn't realize this would be a side effect of the [Bard] classification."

"Wait, this is only going to affect me?"

Issei looked up cautiously, "Yeah? Well, it will also affect me, because I received a full body boost, but no one else in the party should be affected."

Aika started laughing, then promptly hugged Issei, her massive breasts crushed up against him.

"Why are you sorry? This is awesome!"

Issei was still worried, "But what about back pain and things like that?"

Aika pulled back and smiled, "I haven't had any. Magic solves a lot of problems, so I guess passive spinal reinforcement is one of them. Wait, what was that you said about this happening to you?"

Issei groaned in exasperation, "I received a full body boost, so I'll probably have something like this happen to me as well, Ophis, that's going to suck."

Aika's expression glazed over, and then she promptly started giggling.

"Aika, are you ok?"

"Yep, just amused by something I realized, don't mind me."

* * *

 **Forged in Flame:**

Clanging noises echoed throughout the soundproofed forge in the basement. The forge itself was an impressive setup. While it lacked many of the systems modern blacksmiths used, it possessed several magic systems that allowed for infusion of energy at various points in the process, not to mention the aspect infusion altar in the corner.

Issei stood in the forge, a heavy apron over his clothes, as he beat a 2 by 0.2 meter plate of metal into shape.

Ddraig gave the next instruction, 'Alright, now on to the primary quench' Apparently, one of his past hosts had been a mythic blacksmith, and knew a fair bit about forging magic items, armor and weapons.

Issei dipped the plate into a massive trough, though instead of being filled with clear water or yellow or black oil, this one was filled with fresh crimson blood. His blood, painstakingly collected over the past few months and kept fresh by magical seals. And now we were finally using it to quench a sword.

Issei had already mixed the alloy and folded the metal, forming the precise atomic structures needed to make the blade as durable and effective as we could get it. While forging, Issei had enscribed various runes and magic circles into the blade, forming a magic matrix that could be used to cast spells through the blade and make the blade itself over powered, provided the alloy itself didn't do that. The alloy's primary component was Hihi'irokane, a hyper durable metal found in Japanese legend that was claimed to be able to channel magic and flames, and, according to some sources, even generate them. As for the other components, the second material was Bloodglass, which we could thank Valerie for, as she knew of a few locations near her old home where we could collect it. Issei's recently learned [Dragon Gate] was a huge boon in getting there. Bloodglass was known for its absurdly sharp edges, and could be combined with other weapons to make swords that could tear through flesh like it was nothing. To further strengthen the blade, the third metal was Leafmetal, known for its lightness and durability. The final material in the alloy was Ashkalt, a strange ore that helped channel fire magic, further boosting the effects of Hihi'irokane. These metals would have been near impossible to obtain for the average mortal, but Abe knew some people who could give us locations to [Dragon Gate] to, and other people with creatures that could sniff out the ore, all of whom would keep their mouths shut. Issei knew that he had to make her one hell of a weapon to make up for this.

Currently, Issei was shaping the blade to his specifications, and then beating in an initial edge, so as to help the sword retain its sharpness. He would then perform the final touches in forging, then move on to heat treating and grinding the edges to their final shape and sharpness. Finally, he would add the various inscriptions, gems, and enchantments that would make this weapon a true force to be reckoned with. It would live up to the legacy of the weapons it was inspired from, the daiklaives of the Exalted, weapons that slew the gods themselves.

* * *

Twenty Days Later.

Isse gently raised the daiklaive which he had named "Solar" to a ready position and stared down the training dummy before him. Two meters long, with a red and orange blade inset with four green gems, forged from legendary materials, quenched in the blood of dragons, and inscribed with nearly a hundred different magic sigils, it was a masterpiece. Now, it was time for Issei to, and I quote, "see what a god-tier weapon can do." With a single swing, the titanium-steel alloy dummy was cleaved in twain with almost no resistance, save a tiny tug as if someone had put a feather in the way of a baseball bat. The blade itself briefly glowed with white light, as the [Crucible] function activated. One of the dozen-odd functions Issei had put in the blade, [Crucible] converted some of the reaction force on the blade from each strike into magical energy and stored it. With each strike, the blade gathered energy, similar to Issei's own [Boost], and could then unleash this energy at will as either a blazing aura around the blade, or, with enough charge, as a beam of thermal death for almost anything in a given general direction.

Satisfied that the sword came out well, Issei brought it to the armory, where the other weapons he had forged stood. Each member of the party was to receive three sets of weapons, a basic 'trainer' and light combat set, a medium power set, and a mythic-class set containing items such as Solar. On the defensive side, a general set of armor was planned, but weapons would come first. From what I could recall, almost no one in the DxD universe wore proper armor, and it would likely help Issei turn the tables even further.

As of right now, everyone had their light and medium combat sets, and Issei was getting started on the mythic set for Abe. We still had some time before canon, so Issei should be able to get everything done in time.

* * *

Several months later, right before the canon school year starts

Issei dusted his hands off and surveyed the recently organized armory. Racks of weapons adorned the walls, occasionally broken up by an armor stand. Each party member had their own set of weapons to use. While most training weapons were made from Valerie's wraithbone, anything other than that had been forged by Issei. Issei only built himself Solus, his [Sacred Gear] able to do anything else.

Valerie's mid-tier weapon was built using what I called "Folding-frame" technology. Its primary form was a decently sized glaive, about two meters long, made of magically enhanced mundane metals. Its true ability was that it could shift into what amounted to a magical plasma rife, powered by Valerie herself or by energy cells in the haft. However, it paled in comparison to Valerie's mythic weapon, a three-meter glaive made primarily of Moranyx, an ore made of dead magical trees that was known for its ability to channel life magic. Alloyed into the metal was still Leafmetal for durability, as well as Anomium, a powerful magic enhancing ore that boosted Valerie's channeling abilities further. Finally, there was a fair of bit of Bloodglass thrown in to boost her cutting power. On the etching and magical side, her weapon could drain some of the life force of its enemies with a strike, and then transfer it to Valerie, along with boosting Valerie's resistance to various effects, such as mind reading and control. In terms of armor, Valerie's was the heaviest of the set, being light plate mail, colored in red and black, with various wards and alloys used to make it rather durable. Thank the gods Issei remembered to be practical when designing it, so it was actually effective.

Aika was given two rapiers, one mid-tier, and one mythical, as well as a mythical-tier flute. Her mid-tier weapon was made, like Valerie's, with mundane metals enhanced with magic. It also possessed a small runic matrix in the hilt, allowing for her to channel some of her energy along the blade and imbue it with elemental effects. Her mythical rapier was similar, but possessed vastly superior alloy. Its alloy was a mix of equal parts Bloodglass, Leafmetal, Starbrine, Ashkalt, and Ketrite. Starbrine was the main magic-channeling ore of this weapon, though unlike Ashkalt and Moranyx, it channeled the arcane style of human magic the best, as opposed to Ashkalt's affinity for elemental magic or Moranyx's affinity for life and spiritual magic. Ketrite was a highly durable metal used to boost the piercing power of the weapon, in conjunction with bloodglass's slashing boost. The primary magical feature of the weapon was its ability to produce an afterimage while attacking, which either added extra strikes after a swing, or could be shot out as a flying blade or stab, this was combined with the previous runic matrix to allow for elemental attacks. In addition, Aika received a flute that massively boosted her affinity with magic and helped reduce her energy consumption rate. Her armor was a mix, with a plate metal chest piece, a chain mail shirt underneath that, and binders to help her fit under it all. She also possessed a few enchanted robes to help with her casting.

Abe also possessed a variable mid-tier weapon, and three mythic-tier weapons. Her mid-tier weapon was a set of twin blades that could fit together at the handles to form a bow, a special spell stringing it when she combined them. Her mythic weapons, on the other hand, were a set of three, a bow, and two matched xiphos, one silver, one black. As thanks for providing him with a source of ore for the other weapons, Issei made Abe's swords using a small amount of mythical meteoric iron, otherwise known as Starmetal, giving them some nice anti-magic effects, which he then alloyed with Bloodglass, Leafmetal, and Moranyx. Abe's weapons did lack in etchings, while like all mythic-tier weapons they had the standard anti-dull and durability etches, Abe's swords only possessed two exceptional features, an etch that gave them the ability to extend chains of energy from the hilts to bind their foes, and a burning effect from the Starmetal against most supernatural foes of low power. Abe's bow was a recurve made from Vutrionite, Leafmetal, Ketrite, and Boltyx. It possessed incredible range and piercing capability, and was small enough that Abe could fire it from horseback. Abe also possessed the lightest armor of the group, a basic set of chain mail, a warded cloak and a set of metal gauntlets and greaves.

Most of these weapons were a bit too much for regular foes, and would probably not be used until late game, but if need be, we had them ready to go at a moment's notice. The armor would probably see a lot more action. In addition, Issei made sure to seal the armory properly, and have Valerie do a basic soul-binding ritual with each weapon and user, so that way the magic abilities would only activate on contact with the original user.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **So this was mostly little** **snippets of info, sorry that the forging one got a bit long with the exposition. The votes are in and it appears most of you want the kendo club girls to join the [Party]. I was going to have a non-canon joke one in here, but I decided against that. I might post an Omake corner later or something. Anyways, next update might be a two-chapter one containing another of these, as well as the chapter with the canon start.**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review, your reviews make my life better, and feedback is always appreciated.**


	9. Timeskip Shenanigans pt 2

**Go Dino!:**

The [Party] was screeching through the sky, currently being carried by a Slipstream spell, as miles of desert were eaten up below us.

Valerie's voice cut through the rushing wind, "Issei! Did Solus ever fully explain what the hell we're doing?"

Issei shouted back, "Not really! He just said for me to make time to travel to this location, to bring you and Abe, and to bring a few bags of holding and crystal whistles!"

Crystal Whistles were one of the more important creations Issei and Valerie had developed for the party, an enchanted glass whistle that contained a mixture of spatial alignment magic from Issei and stasis magic from Valerie. Abe used them to transport her creatures, as well as store them when she couldn't spare the space. The whistles released their contents when blown. To store a creature, Abe merely had to press the whistle against its forehead or breastbone, or the biological equivalent if the species lacked them.

At the mention of her name, Abe voiced her opinion, "How much longer are we going to be flying for? I'm getting bored as hell cause I ran out of power for my gaming system about thirty minutes ago!"

Issei checked the flight path in his head.

"About fifteen more minutes till we start to descend, then another thirty for the descent itself, then however long we have to spend on Solus' little project."

Forty-five minutes later, the party was landing deep in a heat blasted rockscape.

"Ok Solus, what the hell are we doing out here?"

"Remember my main reason for Abe joining us?"

Issei paused for a minute to think, then the gears seemed to shift and his head shot up.

"You said something about Dinosaur Cavalry?"

"Yep! That's why we're out in the middle of a Utah desert, we're gonna have Valerie find and resurrect us some raptors and Allosauri to tame!"

Abe and Valerie looked at each other. Valerie was the first to speak up.

"Well, I do need more practice with [Sephiroth Graal], and I can admit this might be cool."

Abe's face threatened to be split in two by the grin covering it. "Taming a beast lost to the sands of time! My name will go down in legend! Issei, this is the best present ever!" After saying this she promptly glomped him to the ground.

A few minutes later, after having untangled Issei and Abe, Valerie went to work. It took her a few seconds to pinpoint the souls we were looking for, but Valerie found some. Next, it was Issei's task to dig them up. To move most of the earth and rock in his way, Issei heated the ground to magma, which he could then manipulate under his fire elemental magic. For the final detail work of extracting the fossil fragments we needed, Issei used chisels made from wind blasts. With the fragments collected, Issei opened up the Bags of Holding he had been carrying the entire flight, dumping out about three thousand kilograms of onions. Valerie and Abe stared.

"What? Valerie's going to need biomass, and these were the cheapest option."

With a slight "Ah" of realization, Vsalerie and Abe sat down, Valerie slipping into a meditative trance, her grails orbiting around her head.

As energy began to build up, Abe readied her bow, a tranquilizer coated arrow already on the string. The bones soon began to glow, as the mountain of onions melted into goo and flowed into the light. A few seconds later a screech of an ancient beast cut through the air, as Abe shot forward to capture the beasts. While most humans would have been unable to see through the light of the resurrection, Abe was a [Ranger], and her boost was directed towards her senses. Abe could smell what her mother was cooking for dinner from school, hear a conversation from across a crowded room, track a rabbit over solid rock in a rainstorm, and could tell a beast's mannerisms from a single glance. As the spots cleared, Issei was treated to the sight of Abe weaving through the dinosaurs, her arrows flying true into non-lethal areas, only for the beasts to drop in seconds from the tranquilizer. Within five minutes she had every dinosaur tranqued and sealed in its own whistle.

As we headed home by Dragon Gate, Abe double checked the captures, with the final tally at 3 Allosaurs and 7 Utahraptors.

* * *

 **Tennis:**

The party was at the tennis courts at Abe's request, she wanted to practice, and the only people who could let her go all out were the rest of us. So the teams were picked, with Abe and Aika on one side, while Issei and Valerie took the other. The second Abe served, the field exploded into energy, the ball rocketing from one side to the other at speeds it likely wasn't ever intended to reach.

All in all, it was a very impressive matchup. Issei's side had an excess of physical power, with Issei's absurdly powerful body developed from nearly five years of training, and Valerie not much further behind him, having used her own body as a test bed for her biokinesis on many an occasion. On the other side, it was all technique and skill. Unlike Issei and Valerie, who devoted a large chunk of their time off to either training or lounging, Aika occasionally went with Abe to play tennis, and Abe was a veteran player. Add in Abe's heightened senses, and Aika's superhuman social skills, and they were nearly precognitive in analyzing the battlefield.

The match wore on for several minutes, neither side able to take an advantage over the other, until a particularly brutal swing from Issei tore the ball apart in midair. Everyone stared at the sad, shredded remains with despair, as their competitive spirits had been awakened by the match, when Issei had a thought to make the game more interesting. Voicing his opinion, they all immediately agreed.

The next day, after school and clubs, the party again met at the tennis courts, only this time their gear was much different. Aika and Abe were wearing non-prescription glasses, blurring their vision to near-uselessness. Issei and Valerie, on the other hand, had freshly forged racquets, Valerie's weighing a couple dozen kilograms, while Issei's was closer to a few hundred. With their new handicaps imposed, and the ball reinforced with magic, the game began anew.

Three hours later, the gang returned home, exhausted, but congratulating Aba and Aika in their hard-won victory.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Sorry I had to put this in, I needed to get a few last things in for the** **time skip. Just continue on, I put in two new chapters this time.**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review.**


	10. Ready or Not Canon Starts

We were a fair way into Issei's second year at Kuoh, the year canon started, and I was on edge. Issei's training and influence in Kuoh had greatly changed the social structure of the high school from the canon one. First of all, the title Rias and Akeno held in the canon timeline, the two great "Onee-samas", was now a trio, with Aika joining their ranks. Valerie had a reputation for being a bit creepy at times, but was also known for being helpful to most of the student body. Abe followed canon mostly, a few extra comments about her skills in tennis, but nothing much new. As for Issei himself, he was known as "The Knight", especially after Aika told the story of the time Issei saved her from a mugging, and after a few beat downs delivered to Matsuda and Motohama due to them peeping on the kendo club or being a bit to blatant with their leering. Me and Ddraig had thankfully managed to tone down Issei's perverseness, making it far more covert than in canon. For example, I explained that by using certain balances of light, one can carefully check out a girl using the reflection in the window if one chooses the correct seat. Mirrored surfaces are lovely things. Issei might not have been at canon levels of perverseness, but he hid it well enough and was always willing to help a fellow student in need.

It was as we walked home one day and argued over what to do for movie night, a difficult task that I'll go over another time, that someone spoke up from behind us.

"Um, hello? You're Issei Hyoudou, correct?"

Today had seemed like an average day for me and Issei, get up, get dressed, do morning routine, go to school, everything seemed to be proceeding as normal. But on the way home I heard those words, the which marked the culmination of Issei's grace period, and the introduction to the true hurricane that was the canon storyline. What honestly shocked me more than the fact that the canon timeline was starting was that Raynare was approaching us the same way she did in canon, in her Yuuma form even.

Still, Issei was a sucker for cute girls, so he turned around immediately and took a look. Raynare looked the same as she did in canon, a different school uniform from the one those who went to Kuoh wore, and in her Yuma form.

Issei responded, "Yes, I am, what do you need?"

"My name is Yuma Amano, I've seen you walking home every day from school, and I think I like you, so…Will you please go out with me?"

The ensuing mental argument took a while up here, but for Yuuma, it was only a few seconds.

Ddraig piped up, 'Issei, this is a trap, I can smell the fallen angel in her.'

I joined in, 'Ddraig is correct, but you should still accept the offer.'

'Why should I willingly walk into a trap?'

'Ddraig, how strong would you say she is?'

Ddraig moved to mull over what he smelled earlier, 'Hold on a second. Oh, come on! Issei, you could take her without boosted gear, allies, or magic, and with one arm tied behind your back!'

'Seriously?'

'Yeah, her ego is the size of a small moon, but when she realizes what she's up against, and if you offer to train her, we could definitely boost her up as a member of the party. Plus, she can alter her age, her real form is a lot hotter than that. Anyways, to give you specifics, her actual name is Raynare, and she has a crush on the leader of the Fallen Angels, Azazel. Her big problem is a lack of common sense, and I think if we can teach her that, as well as help her grow in strength, we'll have a valuable ally on our side.'

Issei deadpanned, 'Still don't see how I'm going to convince her.'

'Just do what you do best, be the kindly badass you are.'

Snapping back out of the mindscape, Issei nodded his affirmation.

"Sure, how does Sunday sound?"

"Ok, it's a date!"

The rest of the week passed by uneventfully, with a small break on Wednesday night for me to fill in the rest of the party and put them on standby, just in case Raynare decided to bring backup to the ambush.

* * *

Sunday:

Today was the day we kicked off everything, and the events came hard and fast. Gone were the days of casual training and careful mustering of strength. Now Issei would gain his power on the battlefield.

As Issei headed to his date, a small girl handed him a flyer, Issei unthinkingly took it, then began to examine it.

"Make your dreams come true? And a summoning circle below it?"

I decided to inform him, 'Yeah, that's Gremory's. It's a summoning circle for her devil peerage. Either your cloaks are better than I expected, or the two peerages in this town are just that fucking dumb. I'm more inclined to believe the former, as while this would be something Gremory would miss, Sitri has prevented her own arranged marriage for several years using nothing but her own wits. Hold on to that circle, it's an easy way for us to meet with the devils to discuss terms, because after tonight, we aren't going to be under the radar for long.'

Issei pocketed the flyer and replied, 'Got it Solus.'

The date itself went very well, with Issei pulling out all the stops to give 'Yuma' a good time. They went to the movies, then he took her out for lunch, followed by a trip through the mall and local arcade, and finished off with dinner at a nice restaurant. As the date drew to a close and 'Yuma' lead us to the park, the mindscape formed again for some last minute tactics.

I opened up the discussion, 'So, should we call the rest now?'

'No, neither me nor Ddriag are detecting any other energy signatures at the moment, as far as we can tell, she decided to go it alone.'

'What?'

We had finally arrived by the fountain, and 'Yuma' was turning around.

"Issei, I had fun today, and I have one question."

"Go ahead"

I piped up, 'Calling it now, she's going to say, "Will you die for me?"

"Will you die for me?"

I snickered, 'Ha!'

With that, 'Yuma' leaped into the air, her clothes exploding off her body to be replaced by her standard outfit. Raising her hand above her head, she summoned up a spear of light, and, drawing it back in the most agonizingly grandstanding manner possible, she finally hauled off and threw it.

Raynare simply stated, "Sorry about this, the date was fun, but you're a threat to us, so you must die."

Issei simply sidestepped, with a blank expression on his face as the spear embedded itself in the ground two feet away from him.

When no backup sprang out of the bushes to attack us while we were focused on Raynare, Issei seemed confused, "Um, shouldn't this be the point where your friends pop out of the woodwork and take me out?"

Raynare let loose with a large dose with haughty laugher, "I'm Raynare, the strongest fallen angel! You just got lucky human, I can take you on with no backup. Seriously, you don't even have an awakened [Sacred Gear]! My genius skills in combat will turn you to paste!"

Something inside me _snapped_ at just how fucking moronic she was being _._

My mental voice trembled with barely constrained fury, 'Issei, may I speak for a moment?'

Issei nodded, 'Sure Solus'

The [Boosted Gear] flashed into existence, followed by my voice exploding from the gauntlet, at some points cracking from just how incredulous I was.

"Strongest? Genius? You complete and utter failure of a sentient being! God is dead because he couldn't stand to be around the stupidity of people like you! Seriously, you figured that this kid, who you have never interacted with before and whom you can tell has the potential to be very powerful, would be an acceptable target. Think McFly, think! If he was possibly a threat to you, but, as far as you knew, unaffiliated with any major faction, why the hell would you kill him instead of trying to recruit him? From the way you acted earlier I suspect you thought Issei had no idea of the supernatural world. So, introduce him to your faction, set in the propaganda, and BAM, you've gotten your faction a valuable asset, and now you not only have one less problem, but you turned that problem into a benefit! The capes in _Worm_ are saner than this! Secondly, you knew his power came from a sacred gear, and you figure it would impress Azazel to off him? Do you remember what Azazel's whole shtick is? He loves to study and improve sacred gear users, building on what they have. I'm sure he'd be delighted to know that you destroyed a potential asset to his research without telling him, setting his progress back for a few years while he waited for whatever this one was to respawn! He might even let you try out one of his artificial ones, and by that, I mean try it out with you as the target to see how well it works! Speaking of sacred gears, how did you know the kid wouldn't awaken the damned thing when you attacked? Some of these things have intelligent beings locked in them, some of which could have told Issei how to beat the tar out of you. And don't give me that bullshit about humans being unable to unlock their gears without the help of the three factions, you're expecting someone who did just that to show up later this week! And I'm just getting started on your idiocy. Moving on from how utterly pathetic your reasoning was, let's move on to the execution of your execution. You decided to slip into the territory of two high-class devils, both with their own peerages, and both of them are related to one of the freaking Mao, specifically Lucifer and Leviathan, leaders of the underworld, and you decided to off a potential recruit for their peerages? Are you fucking dumb? Did you even notice the summoning circle they gave him earlier today? One plea for help later, and now he's affiliated with the devils and on their side! Worse, what if they took offense or called in the big guns? I'm pretty sure the leadership never ok'ed this mission, you would be cut loose, then either torn apart by Sitri's water blasts or disintegrated by Gremory's [Power of Destruction]. And that's if they didn't ask for help, then you might be dealing with anything from Sairaorg Bael's unstoppable physical prowess, to Serafall Leviathan's ice magic! Next, let's cover your recon of the target in question. You clearly didn't do anything of the sort! If you did, you might have realized that Issei has an awakened [Boosted Gear], a Longinus, and is currently building a clan of dragons with two other high class humans given draconic power boosts, and a Damphir, also with power boosts, who also possesses another freaking Longinus! You could have followed him any day of the week and probably at least noticed that he goes to the back room of a club with his friends and they train in some form. Even if you had set off some wards I would have been less appalled by this lack of knowledge, but no, Issei's wards never flickered, and there's no way in any realm that you were able to bypass them without setting them off, especially after that pathetic excuse for a light spear showing how bad your magic is. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you arrived in town to accomplish your mission concerning the nun, just finished arriving, saw something you could loosely justify killing, and decided to go off half-cocked to have your own murdergasm!"

I stood in the mindscape, panting, as Raynare seemed to cower away, while Issei and Ddraig looked at me in stunned silence.

I spoke up again, "Despite all this, I do suspect you do have some skills buried in you, especially in the cloaking and assassination categories, the problem is that you're overconfident and have no self-control whatsoever. So, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to turn the floor over to Issei, because he's the one with the physical body, and we'll go from there."

Issei cautiously asked, 'Shit, Solus are you sure you're ok?'

I grit out, 'While "arrogant genius" might be a stereotype, it happens to be one I embody. I tend to get very aggressive when I encounter those I see as my intellectual inferiors. Thankfully, I'm dammed good at suppressing it, I just needed to vent a little.'

Ddraig coughed, 'Yeah you needed to vent 'a little' the same way a typhoon is 'a little' rain.'

'Can we get back to the crazy chick in the stripper outfit for now? She looks like she's going to try and kill us again.'

Indeed, Raynare had shakily climbed back to her feet, and was now charging up a larger spear of light. With a quick grunt, she hurled it at Issei, who decided to show off, and stepped right into its path. It burned a hole through his shirt, then shattered like glass against the sheer strength of his flesh, which may or may not have been boosted by the twenty or so wards he had cast before the date started.

Issei began to slowly walk forward, each step measured and precise, as Raynare grew more and more desperate, hurling light spears with reckless abandon, with Issei either tanking them head-on, or batting them aside with a single palm strike. What made this even scarier was that throughout the entire fight, Issei had yet to use a single [Boost].

Raynare started screaming, "Get away! Getawaygetawaygetaway!"

Nothing was affecting him, and after he crossed half the distance, he raised his gauntleted hand to his side, a small sphere of energy forming within it. Suddenly he vanished from Raynare's sight, reappearing suspended in the air above her by his draconic wings, his tail snaking behind him. The *woosh* of the flaps gave away our position, as Issei unleashed his attack.

"Greater Magic Missile!"

A bolt of energy about the size of a basketball shrieked down towards Raynare, clearly ready to reduce her body to chunky salsa.

Raynare wrapped her wings in a vain attempt to protect herself and cowered on the ground, screaming out, "Please, no! I'll do anything!"

But the death she was expecting for never came. She slowly unfurled her wings to see the ball of energy two inches from her face, suspended in the air.

Issei softly said, "Anything, huh?"

With those words, the ball of magic dissipated into the air around it.

"Allow me to see if that's true, Pailingual!"

To our sight, a small sphere of grey had expanded from Issei, enveloping the surroundings and Raynare.

Raynare herself said "Pai-what?"

At the same time, two new voices, similar to Raynare's spoke up themselves.

"What is he doing to us?"

"Hopefully he won't kill us."

"Well, we're going to do whatever he asks, so we should be fine."

Issei spoke up, "Raynare, are you willing to swear loyalty to me, and then keep the terms of the oath? And do you currently have any plans to backstab me in the near future?"

Her actual voice said, "Yes I would keep an oath to you and won't try to backstab you!"

"Yes."

"No more plans, starting now!"

Issei dismissed the spell, "Ok, I believe you."

"Just like that? And whoever that voice was called _me_ a fool…"

"Not just like that, an application of Pailingual is seeing through lies, I knew you were telling the truth."

Raynare's jaw dropped and she hugged herself, "You can do that?"

"Yeah, but the energy drain is absurd, even for me, I really haven't had time to refine it completely, so the energy cost is a lot more than it should be."

Issei extended his hand, which Raynare tentatively grabbed.

"Anyways, I'm sure you wish to know all the specifics, but what I will explain for now is that I can offer you a lot of power and training, in return for your loyalty. Do you wish to leave the Fallen Angels' faction and join mine?"

"What?"

"Let me sum it up for you. My name is Issei Hyoudou, I am the current wielder of the [Boosted Gear] and... Whatever the hell Solus is. Several years ago, I used an aspect of the [Boosted Gear] to exchange my blood with that of a dragon, infusing my entire body with draconic energy. I developed a system similar to the [Brave Saint] and [Evil Piece] systems, and I'm offering you a place in that. In exchange for more reserves of energy, a boost in power, and training in several arts, I ask that you aid me in my future endeavors as a comrade in arms."

"Do I have a choice?"

"Yep, you didn't succeed in killing me after all. So you can either accept the deal and join me, or you can decline, leave, and never speak of this night again, under threat of death."

We could see the warring thoughts on Raynare's face before her expression lightened, and she stepped forward, sighing.

"Alright, I accept your offer, where do I sign?"

"I'll take you there. Dragon Gate!"

With a flash of red light, we were teleported to the Dragon's Den.. Abe and Aika were asleep at home, but Valerie was still in and awaiting our arrival.

"Where are we, who is she?"

"Evening Valerie. Raynare, this is Valerie, my [Cleric]. Valerie, this is Raynare, the girl who just tried to kill me, failed, and I decided to recruit as my [Rogue]."

Valerie snickered, "Let me guess, Solus's idea?"

"Yep.", replied Issei, popping the 'p'.

"Anyways, Valerie, I'm going to go get the contract, could you make up a bed for our guest? She's going to need somewhere to stay tonight and I doubt her former comrades will take kindly to her after she joins."

Raynare paled, "Oh god, they'll kill me!"

"No, they won't, because this place is heavily warded, and if they attack you, you'll be able to call on the rest of the party for protection. We help each other out."

Issei walked into the Armory, and retrieved the same briefcase and quills he had used with Valerie, Aika, and Abe.

Five minutes later, and Raynare's [Rogue] contract was melding into her chest, as the energy flowed through her veins. Her wings extended, then with a flash, a second pair appeared below them, giving her four wings in total. As the new wings grew in, the feathers on her wings changed, where they once were strange, but oddly similar to those of a large bird, now, they were plates of oversized scales, each one likely as light as the old feathers, but much more durable.

"What happened, how did I get more wings?"

I took this moment to provide exposition.

"Most of the big three express their power level by the number of wings they have. It's likely there was some sort of chain reaction with the infusion of draconic energy reacting with your natural energy reserves, likely causing them to expand a bit faster than normal, so you're now a four-winged, instead of the two you were before."

"Holy crap. I. I'm stronger! Thank you so much!"

With that Raynare tried to bowl Issei over with a flying hug.

"No one back in the fallen, well maybe Azazel, would have done this! I accept the terms of the contract and will serve you to the end!"

"It's no trouble, working with Solus means you develop a pretty thick skin, speaking of which, Solus, what's her training going to focus on?"

"Primarily enhancing her stealth skills, as well as improving her common sense to acceptable levels. Her magic is primarily light based, so I want to work mostly on illusions and invisibility, with making her light weapons stronger a secondary objective. Other than that, I'll talk with you later about her new gear."

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Sorry about the wait, but I promised I would get the start of canon out in this update, and I needed to put in a few more time skip data points, so this became a two chapter update. With more chapters comes more time. Anyways, Raynare's personality is going to be a bit less arrogant after that reality check Issei gave her, so fun times in the future! Next chapter will be mostly Issei getting an Alliance set up with the local peerages.**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review.**


	11. Negotiations and Introductions

**Author's Note: Decided to have Issei not set up a meeting with Rias immediately, editing that out.**

* * *

Issei returned to school the next day, walking in with Aika, Abe, and Valerie as usual. It was only when we got to the gates that thigs started to seem off. Everyone who looked at us whent pale and started stuttering, and after a quick check that we hadn't done anything stupid, forget your pants once, never forget them again, we started to think. It was only when we entered the halls and found them deserted that the neurons in my brain finally made the connection, and I started laughing.

'Issei, I know what's going on, oh gods this is funny!'

'What?'

I was able to pause my laughter enough to get out, 'Before I answer, quick check, you remember _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_?'

'Yeah?'

'Good, head to the auditorium. You'll know what line to use when you get there. This is gonna be ep-ic!'

Aika asked, "Issei, what's going on?"

"No clue, Solus does know but he's laughing his ass off about it and won't tell me."

Abe paled, "Oh god, the apocalypse is coming."

Valerie facepalmed, "We're going to raise hell without realizing it, aren't we?"

"Yep."

The party then proceeded to the rear of the auditorium and opened the doors, slipping in just in time to her the last words of Sona's speech.

"…Hyoudou Issei was a great man, and his passing will be felt my all of us here at Kuoh."

'Oh, Ophis damn it. Solus, you son of a bitch. Fine, I'll do it.'

Issei calmly walked into the middle of the aisle and, as everyone turned to stare at him with mounting shock, he quoted in the flattest voice possible.

"I'm not dead yet."

The room had gone silent, as his words echoed around the auditorium.

Sona, still staring in disbelief, managed to get out, "Hyoudou, I was told by a trusted friend that you had died last night in a horrific car accident."

"Evidently, your source was off, probably someone who looked a bit like me, because I never got in a car last night, and I was at the park for most of the night. I can tell you the specifics in more detail later, but for now, yes, I am alive, and I'm ready to start the school day."

Sona recovered quickly enough, her practiced business demeanor slipping back into place effortlessly.

"Certainly, how does after school at the occult research club sound?"

"That will work."

His piece said, Issei turned around and headed to his classroom, Abe and Aika rolling their eyes, while Valerie started laughing.

Valerie gasped out, "Let me guess, the 'car crash' was their preplanned excuse for why the fallen angel killed you?"

"Probably."

"If only they knew what you actually did with cars while training. How _did_ Ddraig and Solus convince you to strap those rockets to the car and stand downrange of it?"

"We are not discussing momentary lapses in my judgement right now."

The school day continued on, with most of the class shooting glances at Issei in shock. It's not every day that your classmate is reported dead, then walks into his own funeral as if nothing had happened.

* * *

As the day drew to a close, Issei met up with the rest of the [Party] as they walked to the Occult Research Club building. Entering the main room, the party encountered both local peerages arranged on various couches around the room. Upon closer inspection, they were arranged in such a way so as to boost their ambush capabilities, with those I remembered as knights and bishops on the edges of the room, ready to flank and support. The rooks were closest to the open seats, so they could leap into position to shield their allies. The kings themselves were behind Rias' desk, their queens flanking them. Issei himself had arranged his party into a defensive stance. Issei himself was on point to engage quickly, Valerie was in the core to keep herself safe, Abe was to the side so she could flank, and Aika was behind the couch to handle attacks from the rear and support. None of us were outright armed, but Aika had a spare flute in her hands, Abe had the whistle for her nightmare, Valerie could simply summon a weapon, and Issei fought hand-to-hand.

"Alright, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, so I'll give a brief explanation right now. Five years ago, a dead soul from another world, named Solus, was bound to mine by forces beyond my comprehension. He acts as an advisor, helping me achieve my goals in life. Thanks to him, I awakened my [Sacred Gear], the [Boosted Gear] and began training to become strong and smart enough to achieve my goals. Along the way I helped a few people, who became members of my little group."

With these words, Issei manifested his gauntlet, causing a few of the people in the room to jump.

Rias spoke up in a commanding voice, "How have you stayed hidden that long?"

I spoke up, "Because no one in the supernatural world, save Azazel, and maybe Ajuka, can do recon worth shit."

Rias turned to the gauntlet, "Are you Solus or Ddraig?"

"I'm Solus, nowadays Ddraig is usually asleep."

Sona cut in "Anyways, Issei, what are you? A regular Red Dragon Emperor is definitely powerful, but certainly not as skilled with magic as you are."

All attention back on him, Issei flatly replied, "I am a dragon. Any arguments to the contrary shall be made invalid."

I snickered, "Dovahkiin, you mean."

"Cram it, Solus", Issei snapped.

Rias glanced at the gauntlet, "Is he always like this?"

"No, he usually keeps his comments to himself, hell this is the most heckling I've seen out of him in a while."

I cheerfully replied, "It's because we're finally around people who can understand what I'm saying, Mr. I-speak-six languages-fluently."

Sona took the floor, "Which six?"

Issei fielded this one, "Japanese, Romanian, English, Italian, Latin, and Norse. They were the ones we deemed necessary for future events, all our other time was devoted to different studies."

"What kind of studies?"

"Every academic topic under the sun, advanced mathematics, magical theory, and at Solus' request, engineering and forging. And that's completely ignoring all the other training I did."

Rias seemed intrigued while she asked, "Oh, will you tell us more?"

"I don't want to talk about it, it brings back bad memories."

And there were the puppy-dog eyes, "Please?"

Issei managed to withstand them and grit out, "No."

Aika spoke up, "I can show you."

Issei turned to her, shocked, "What! How?"

"You take your shirt off when you train, so I recorded some video when I trained with you."

Akeno perked up, "Really?"

"Yep!"

Aika then proceeded to take out her smartphone and pull up a video of a shirtless Issei, a plate of steel held in his left hand, walking to stand under a massive rock cliff.

Aika was clearly off in dreamland as she drooled over the video, "Oh yeah, look at those sexy abs."

Rias started drooling herself, then quickly snapped out of it, "Mao, you could grind meat on those… Wait, why is he standing under a cliff?"

*Boom*

The camera snapped up to reveal a rockslide tumbling down, as a panicked Issei raised the metal plate above his head.

The sound of a small explosion echoed from the phone, as everyone stared at the screen in shock. Slowly, Rias raised her head, "Oh, my Mao. Issei, you stood under a cliff, while they were DYANAMITING it?"

"Hey! Ddraig didn't tell me until the charges were about to go off!"

Ddriag's voice sounded out, clearly having just woken up, "What's all the noise?"

I turned to him in the mindscape, "Oh, hey Ddraig, sorry we woke you, Aika was showing us her video of the rock quarry incident."

"Oh yes, I remember that, an excellent test of Issei's durability. I was honestly impressed with how well he tanked it."

Everyone was gaping at Issei, and I didn't manage to catch who squeaked out the next words, "How hurt was he?"

Ddraig explained this one, "Apparently all the rock doesn't hit at once, and Issei's flesh and bone are definitely more durable than a human's, so he was able to get out of it with a few broken bones, some lacerations, a crushed hand, and a good sized bump on his head."

One of Sona's pawns turned to face the gauntlet, "You two are cruel people you know that?"

"To be fair to Solus, the whole thing was my idea and I convinced Issei to stand there."

Issei cleared his throat and gently turned off the video, "Anyways, is there anything we could use to show you some of our capabilities?"

"Yes, as it happens, I have been tasked by the Archduke with hunting down a local stray devil."

"Would this stray happen to be in the old manufacturing district?"

"Yes, actually, how did you know?"

"The wards around my base were going off, and some of my club patrons mentioned that they felt like they were being watched when they walked to the club"

Akeno spoke up, "You mean to tell me you are the owner of _The Tower_?"

Issei quirked an eyebrow, "Um, yes."

"Oh my. Rias, we have found ourselves quite the catch."

Akeno tilted herself in such a way as to clearly flaunt her 'Assets'

"Would you be able to get us in by any chance? I have heard so many good things about it and I want to see what it's like."

Issei shook his head to clear his thoughts, "We can talk about that later, but for now, let's get back on the original topic, Solus, any info?"

I cleared my throat, "Ok ladies and gentlemen, here's what I can tell you about Viser, the stray devil. She has the form of a centaur with a dog instead of a horse for the lower half. In terms of armaments, she has an extra set of oversized arms she uses for swipe attacks, her regular arms wield low-quality spears, and her breasts can shoot acidic milk."

Issei's voice took on a warning tone, "Solus…"

I deadpanned, "No, I'm not making that last one up, the stuff flies about as fast as an arrow and can melt through steel."

Issei sighed, accepting that this was his life now, and continued, "Anyways, how about we hunt it together, I'd like to give my party members some live combat experience, and I'm sure you want to know how strong the people you're sharing the town with are."

Rias nodded, "Certainly, shall we head out now?"

"Would it be possible to meet at my base? My party needs to get equipment and collect our newest member. I swear by Ophis and Big Red nothing will happen to you by our hand."

"Acceptable, we will be there by 9:00."

"Ok, head to _The Tower_ , go around back to the side door with the dumpster next to it, and knock three times."

* * *

9:00 pm, _The Dragon's Den:_

The knock came at the door, as Issei tigged on the binding strips.

"Valerie! Could you get that? I'm busy helping Aika with her armor!"

Valerie clanked downstairs, her plate mail shifting around her, and she opened the door.

She greeted our guests, "Good evening"

"Good Evening, sorry I can't come over right this instant, Aika needed a hand with her armor, so we took a bit longer than usual"

Aika rolled her eyes and called out, "Come on Issei, harder, I'm no doll!"

Acquiring a better grip on the binding strap, Issei rolled his eyes, "That sounds like an innuendo."

"Yep!"

With an almighty yank and a smirk from Aika, her massive rack was finally compressed enough to fit in her cuirass. Isseis stepped back and walked over to the training area. Pulling her mail shirt on and then strapping the cuirass on over it, Aika walked over to the door and grabbed her outer robes. Issei turned to the two figures on the couch, currently engrossed in some game, and called out,

"Ok, you two, Aika's got her armor on and we're heading out."

As the two occupants stood up and revealed themselves to Rias, she gasped in shock.

"Issei, Isn't that…"

"Yeah, Raynare here tried to kill me last night. Lucky for me, I'm a lot tougher than anything she could throw at me, so I was able to make a counter offer, which she accepted. She works with me now."

"How can you be sure she won't betray you?"

"Really weird spell I figured out years ago that helps with lie detection, only works on females though. Neither me or Ddriag believed Solus when he told us of its existence, it's that weird, plus, I don't want to give up all my secrets."

Turning back to the door Issei changed the subject, "Anyways, Raynare will be on observation duty tonight, because she needs to learn what exactly she managed to miss in her reconnaissance."

With that said, we grouped up and headed out.

"Abe, you know what we're looking for now, why don't you start us off."

"Sure Issei"

Abe knelt down and examined the ground around us, her nose and ears twitching slightly.

"Got it, follow me."

Unfolding her bow and stringing an arrow, Abe began to walk off.

Following her, Issei began a speech similar to the one Rias gave in canon, "My [Party] is nowhere near complete, but I can show you what I have right now. Abe is my [Ranger], which grants her superhuman senses, tracking skills, and an affinity with animals."

We approached a different abandoned warehouse about ten blocks from the club itself, when a voice echoed out from the warehouse.

"I smell something sweet, but also something rotten, no matter, I will feast well tonight."

The ground trembled with Viser's heavy footfalls as she stepped out of the warehouse, her spears raised, but not pointed at us.

Abe snapped her bow up and loosed an arrow, moving the second after she fired. The silvered arrow slammed into Viser's knee, sending her slumping forwards before recovering. Launching herself forward, Viser's spears shot towards Abe. Abe twisted in midair, separating her bow at the handle into twin short swords, which she then used to deflect Viser's first spear thrust. Ducking under the second spear, Abe shot forward, unleashing a vicious combo on Viser's wounded leg.

Issei looked over, "Aika, why don't you help her out."

Nodding, Aika pulled out her flute and began to play. Hearing the sound, Abe pulled back as Viser's eyes started to glaze over, not wanting to interrupt the hypnosis. As Viser seemed to start swaying with the beat, Aika's wind spirits formed around her in a swirling vortex, forming a shield around her body.

"Aika is my [Bard] and she functions as a Jack-of-All-Trades, with her enhanced social and musical skills giving her decent magical, physical, and mental abilities, ranging from cold reading in combat to hypnosis by music, to air elementals."

Viser's body began to move, slowly at first, but rapidly getting faster, as she seemed to start masturbating. Dammit Aika.

"She also has a perversion problem matched only by her bra size."

Rolling his eyes, Issei continued to take in the scene. With Viser sufficiently distracted, Abe moved in, but forgot one of Viser's attacks that Aika was now triggering by accident. Halfway to Viser, Abe saw death approaching her in the form of acidic breast milk. God, that sentence is so weird out of context. Anyways, her death was averted by a spear of bone lancing from the ground and unfolding into a wall, which then proceeded to decorate itself with full engravings of various topics. Looking over, we could see Valerie lifting her hand off the ground, the bone spur she had used to project the wall slowly retracting into her hand.

"Valerie is my [Cleric], the embodiment of a support role. While her offensive abilities are decent, it's her defensive abilities that are off the charts. She can heal, bring back the dead, and control any organic matter near her. She's also been working on her umbrakinesis, but that's still not ready for combat yet."

Abe changed her momentum to run up and over the wall, while Aika changed the tune of her song, the elementals coiling around her and blasting in a stream towards Viser. Tearing her eyes from the scene before us, Raynare spoke up.

"Issei, you said my class was [Rogue], what does that give me?"

"Enhanced agility and fine motor control, you excel in stealth, precision strikes, and sneak attacks. We'll work a bit more on your light magics, but right now, we haven't had the time for it."

"Now, I do not have a role in the party, instead, I unlock the power for those in my party, but in order to unlock it, I need to have greater power. I'll give you a taste."

"Aika, Abe, fall back, I'm going to finish it!"

"Alright"

The two leapt back, leaving a broken and bleeding Viser behind them. Massive lacerations and spurs of shattered bones covered Viser's skin, as her body slumped on the ground in defeat. Slowly twisting her head to face us, Viser grit out,

"You lowlife scum! You'll never beat me!"

Viser's body began to shift and mutate, her teeth lengthening to fangs and claws grew out of her fingers. Her wounds healed at an accelerated rate, restoring her to near perfect health, but, if my guess was correct, severely lowering her energy reserves.

[Boost!]

Issei shot forward like a cannonball, his feet leaving indentations in the ground behind him. His left arm scythed around in a savage straight, forcing Viser onto her back legs, her back coiling back unnaturally. Using the force of the recoil to land, Issei darted underneath her and punched up, launching Viser's body into the sky. Snapping his wings out, Issei blasted into the sky after her, arcing around her still-rising form, then flipping around and rocketing back into the ground, smashing into Viser midway down. With an impact that shook the earth, Issei slammed Viser into the ground, pulping the middle of her dog half. Still alive and struggling to get back up and regenerate, Viser slowly raised her hand up. She never had a chance. Issei flipped out of the crater, still covered in the viscera from the previous impact, and formed a sphere of energy in front of his hand

[Boost!]

"Transfer Power."

[Transfer!]

The ball of energy grew fourfold, and Issei slugged it, turning the basketball-sized ball of energy into a green beam of oblivion, which smashed into Viser with the force of a freight train. When the dust settled and everyone finished blinking the spots out of their eyes, all that remained of Viser were a few ashes drifting on the breeze, and a channel of glowing rock leading into a room-sized crater.

Issei turned to the Devils, "So yeah, that's about one-thousandth what I have to offer, I'm open for negotiations now."

His words fell on deaf ears, given they were too busy focused on how much damage a single entity had wrought, while holding back.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Finally got this out, it really didn't want to be written. I couldn't think of a good way to handle the full negotiations, and I wanted to have a fight, so the actual agreement will happen off screen.**

 **Anyways, next chapter should be the additions of the [Druid] and [Fighter], and I believe I have already stated who they are. I also have to announce that while I already held a poll to determine the [Barbarian], I had an idea on that front and will post a new poll on it.**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review.**


	12. A Sad, Lost, Blonde, Little Puppy

Negotiations with Rias and Sona went well. As far as Issei and I could tell, the two [Kings] had decided to follow the same rules as before, with Rias getting first dibs on the negotiations. The end result was that Issei was placed in a position where he would be able to do what he did in canon, but with much more freedom. With the local devils sorted out, and Issei beginning to build rapport with them, our next main step was Asia. You know, I don't know why but it seems I've been pushing for Issei to acquire girls whose names start with the letter 'A', but that should change later. Anyways, thanks to carefully questioning Raynare, I was able to learn that Asia was not expected to arrive for another couple of days, and the ritual would be easiest to perform, and was therefore planned to be executed, three days after that, all without giving too much information to Issei. I intentionally kept most of the details vague, as I did with every matter regarding canon. The reason was actually rather simple. Issei, at heart, is a nice guy, so making sure he gives genuine reactions helps him build rapport amongst the girls. Since we had some time to prepare, Issei set about building Raynare's weapons, while the rest of the [Party] began her skill training.

Issei's hammer strikes echoed through the forge as he molded the next of Raynare's mythic weapons, having completed her mid-tier weapons yesterday. Since I was pretty much using the weapons from _RWBY_ for our mid-tier armaments, Issei had gone with Emerald's weapons, which were a mix of revolver, sickle, and kusarigama. Raynare's mythic tier weapons were inspired by one of the few episodes of _Overlord_ I had seen, a set of four stilettos, each enchanted with a different magical damage, set into twin holsters of two daggers each at the small of Raynare's back. Speaking of which…

"You wanted to see me?"

Issei turned his head towards the fallen angel who had ducked into the workshop. Raynare was already starting to sweat from her training, the heat of the forge was not helping matters, her skin shining as her curves were... Snap out of it Solus! Luckily for Issei, hot metal is an acceptable distraction from hot girls, so he was able to stay focused. He reached over to the table holding a semi-finished dagger and handed it to her.

"Yeah, see how you like the grip on this."

She twirled the blade between her fingers and sighed.

"It works, but I still don't understand why I can't just use my light spears."

I spoke up, "Because we want to work on your espionage skills, and we won't be able to get your light weapons up to enough strength to be useful later. Plus, what if you have to fight someone with anti-magic abilities? At least with these, you can still shank them, even if they won't catch fire after you do so."

She looked down at the knife, running her finger along the flat of the blade, before adopting a puzzled expression.

"What do you mean, catch fire? This blade is cold as ice, so there's probably no fire magic in here."

Issei replied, "Yeah, that's your ice dagger, they're a matched set of four. One ice, one fire, one lightning, and one toxin."

"What are you using for the blades?"

"All four blades have a mix of my favorites Bloodglass and Leafmetal, along with Ioscaylium for balance, and Adamantite for armor piercing. Finally, each blade receives a different magic channeling mineral. The flame blade uses Ashkalt, the ice blade uses Starbrine, the poison blade uses Moranyx, and the lightning blade uses Anomium."

Raynare stood there gaping at him. Issei set the hammer and metal down, before leaning back on one of the workbenches.

"How did you get these ores and keep the profile you did? This stuff is mythic tier and most factions would kill to keep their sources of the stuff! Hell, I only know about those because I had to kill a smith who was selling some of ours on the side!"

"Abe, believe it or not. Apparently, beast tamers need several special materials for their taming and capture processes, so they have massive contact networks to acquire materials. It also doesn't hurt that well-trained beasts can sniff the veins out for me, which I then excavate with magic. In exchange for the materials or locations, I help with tracking and the occasional smithing job. Abe's family is able to keep my work mostly under the table, so no one knows where the ore goes or where the finished goods come from."

"So, you're going to just give me four weapons each with materials worth more than my annual budget?"

"Everyone in the party needs to be properly equipped, so yes. Oh, that reminds me, as soon as we finish with this mess in a few days, I'm going to have to fit you for your armor."

"Armor? Why would I need that? I already have my combat outfit."

"That "Stripper Outfit", as Solus put it, isn't going to stop much of anything. My [Balance Breaker] gives me a suit of plate mail, but as you saw last night everyone else in the party wears actual armor. We might not have as many weaknesses as devils, but as a member of the party, you are vulnerable to anti-dragon weaponry. Thankfully that stuff is rare, but that's why you'll have magical armor, to counteract things like that."

Raynare sighed and set the dagger back down.

"So how are you settling in to the base?"

"It's nice, honestly I'm surprised you were able to pay for it all considering your status."

"Remember what we talked about earlier Raynare, appearances are deceiving. I actually have a fairly large nest egg I've built up over the years, mostly because Solus can give a few tips on what investments are major traps. It's not quite insider trading, but it works wonders. Anyways, I have to finish your weapons, you have training, so why don't we both get back on that?"

Raynare turned on her heel and snorted, before strutting from the room. Issei took a moment to admire the view, contained in rather tight exercise shorts, before standing back up and returning to work.

* * *

The next evening had passed by rather easily, with Rias asking us to meet with one of Koneko's clients because the girl was unable to visit at that time. Since it was cosplay, Raynare was given a break from her training to give us a hand in her Yuma form.

Issei watched her carry the Otaku around his apartment in costume, "I'm surprised you're going along with this so easily."

"Trust me, I normally wouldn't, but your training regime is so brutal I'll take a cushy job when I can get it."

* * *

After that came a second minor event a few days later. That evening was going pretty normally, when we got a call from Kiba.

"Issei, could I borrow your expertise for a bit?"

"Why?"

"I have a client with a request I need assistance granting, and you're the only one in the city with even the potential to pull it off."

That's odd, I thought the other devils were able to handle every request in canon. Issei usually was the one with the impossible tasks…Oh fuck no. I forced the sacred gear into existence, and asked,

"Kiba? Would this client happen to be named Mil-tan?"

Kiba was silent before wincing, "Yes."

"Ok, thank you. Issei, fetch Valerie and brace yourself, this is not going to be fun."

"Why? Mil-tan sounds like a cute girl."

"HE, is a magical girl aficionado who wants to become one and decided to get as strong as one first. The guy is at least six feet and probably deadlifts close to half a ton with natural human muscles, so they aren't compressed like yours are. So, unless you want to see that sort of figure crammed into that sort of outfit, followed by whatever body horror Valerie's work is going to do, brace yourself."

A quick word of note, Valerie's biokinesis, while absolute, has different power drains depending on the target. The simpler the lifeform, the easier it was to manipulate, and willing sentient beings were easier than unwilling. In this case, since Mil-tan would be willing, we shouldn't run the risk of overuse, so we would be able to do the job, then GTFO.

Anyways, five minutes later Issei and Valerie were Dragon Gating to Kiba's location. After another five minutes of Valerie doing her work, we departed before Mil-tan decided to give her thanks, new body or not. Valerie spent the night curled up with Issei, both of them shuddering from the horrors of that encounter. I would have laughed at their misfortune, but I wasn't even watching, and I nearly puked in there from the sound alone, so I wasn't about to criticize them. I manifested the mindscape and spoke up.

"Kiba _owes_ us for this one."

Issei and Valerie said in synch, "Agreed."

* * *

That Saturday:

It was finally the day of Asia's arrival. I had had Issei monitor the town yesterday as well, just in case Asia showed up early, but it appears Asia was keeping to her timetable. Today, Issei was alone, running some errands when I heard a thud from behind us.

Issei turned around to see someone fallen on the ground, their suitcase flung open and clothes everywhere. Although that was all secondary to the panty-clad backside sticking up in the air from the truly impressive face plant the girl had managed to perform.

The girl rolled over and sat up, allowing us to see her face and blonde hair as her habit fell off, rubbing her head, "Owwwww."

 _Error. Cuteness levels have exceeded safe parameters. has stopped working. Attempting reboot. Reboot Successful._

A few seconds later I shook myself back to reality. Wow. I knew Asia was cute, but that was weapons grade right there, seriously it was like you took every cute animal in the world, extracted that cuteness, and made it into a person. Issei is a lucky bastard. Anyways, I should probably start paying attention again.

"…let me help you with that."

It appears that Issei had helped Asia collect her belongings and stand up while I was out of it. It appears he's now showing her the way to the church and carrying her suitcase for her.

As they walked Issei was able to hear more of Asia's story, which I must admit is even worse when you know that the god she prayed to is dead and when you're hearing it directly from her. While she was occupied healing a child who scraped his knee I started talking in the mindscape.

'First Mover damn it.'

'That's a new one Solus, what brought this on?'

'Stuff I'm debating whether to reveal myself in about 48 hours, or let someone else reveal in a few weeks.'

'How important?'

'Shatter your worldview and possibly drive this girl into depression.'

'That's bad.'

'Actually, while we're on the subject, could you give the girl something to contact us with? Maybe one of the bracelets, necklaces, or rings we have?'

'Sure. Bad things coming up?'

'Yeah.'

As we arrived at the church the aura of the occupying Fallen enveloped us. Issei turned to speak to Asia.

"Hey Asia, I'm getting a bad feeling about this. Could you do me a favor?"

"What?"

Issei reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver bracelet.

"Wear this, and if you need help, call me, I'll be willing to lend a hand, either in person or in spirit."

Her eyes lighting up, Asia slipped the bracelet on.

"Thank you Issei!"

She's like a puppy, honestly. I hope we can do some good by her. She certainly deserves it.

Heading back home Issei sent the girls a message, seeing who was available tonight. Abe had a tennis match, while Aika had a concert, and they were therefore out of town, so tonight's combat roster would consist of Issei, Raynare, and Valerie. He requested that those two prepare for combat. As he made his way to the base, Issei called Rias at my request, asking her to divert a few calls to him tonight.

* * *

Later that night:

At around 8:30, we got a call from Rias with a potential client. Issei spread his wings and flew to the address, only for his nose to be flooded with the scent of fresh blood.

'Solus, battle info now, because I know you knew about this.'

'Current entities are Asia and a batshit insane exorcist named Freed. Threat level minimum, but don't let your guard down around Freed, the man loves killing, and he's damn good at it. Asia doesn't know about Freed yet, when she does, we can make our moves.'

Issei slipped on his game face and curtly replied, 'Got it'

Banking, Issei curved his flight to land outside the front door. Slowly opening it, the smell of blood and offal flooded out as we took in the gristly sight. Three humans, one crucified upside down to the wall, one torn apart on the floor, organs draped around in a twisted mockery of art. The last was a female still impaled on a glowing sword, her blood dripping down onto the floor. With a squelch, Freed withdrew his blade and turned to us. A face-splitting grin formed as his eyes grew wild with bloodlust.

"Yay! A shitty little devil came to play with me! We're going to have so much fun, you and me! Make this interesting and I might even kill you fast!"

And with those words he whipped his pistol out and opened fire. Issei raised his gauntlet and deflected them, pouring on some speed to close the distance.

Issei flatly stated while he moved, "Not a devil."

As soon as he was in range, Freed switched to his sword, bringing it down in a strike clearly meant to take Issei's gauntleted forearm off. With a quick twist of his wrist, Issei brought his had around to grab the offending wrist and hurled Freed across the room. As Issei prepared to close the distance again, a female voice caused him to freeze, this vice wasn't Asia's, but it was familiar. Twisting his body so that he could keep an eye on Freed, Issei came face-to face with one of the kendo club members, Katase, staring at the gruesome scene before her in shock.

"Aunt Scarlet? Uncle Roron? What's going on?"

Then she saw the body on the ground.

"Oh god. Mommy!"

Katase raced to the body on the floor, as Freed howled with glee in the background. She cradled her mother's corpse in her arms and started sobbing.

"Oh, that one? I was going to have so much fun with her! I was going to slice her up for being the shitty devil worshiper she was, then I would purify the body with my…"

Ok, that's just disgusting.

"… and it will be one of the best stews I've ever eaten! Now since you're her daughter and had no idea what she was doing, you get to die too! But first, you get to be made a woman by my hand!"

At this point Katase was on the ground clutching her mother's corpse shivering in fear and grief. Issei took one glance at her and called Valerie with a few spells.

"We have trouble. Exorcist at the site, Civilian child at risk in the crossfire, and I'll send you the memories of what happened, get here soon please."

Throughout all of this Freed kept on talking. And Issei let him do so because he was so shocked by everything Freed was saying, most of which I honestly can't repeat. But please, Freed, continue to dig your own grave. I'm pretty sure Issei would have boiled my body in the mindscape from pure rage by this point, in fact…

*Crack*

*Sizzle*

Yep, Issei's so mad I can literally cook eggs with his rage. I deleted the cooked egg and sat back. Well, when you have front row seats to a free show, and it's hot enough to cook, you enjoy the show. On that note…

*Pow**Pow**Pow*

Ddraig's voice rumbled out as he materialized, "What the fuck is going on in here? It's baking in here and it smells like popcorn."

"Oh, hey Ddraig, some idiot fucked up, so I made popcorn to munch on while I watched the show."

"Summary?"

I replayed the clip for him.

His grin went feral, "Pass the popcorn."

"Are you quite finished?"

"Indeed I am, shitty devil!"

"Still not a devil."

"Fuck you I was talking! Anyways shitty devil, it's time for you to die!"

Freed leveled his gun and raised his sword, ready to take us on, when a soft voice spoke up.

"Father Freed? I've finished setting up the barrier."

Asia slowly entered the room and saw the carnage on the floor, the man nailed to the wall, the girl cradling the body of her mother, and Freed and Issei staring each other down.

"Oh, Asia! I was just about to teach this shitty little devil a lesson, kill him, then kill the devil-worshiper's daughter. Finally, we'll dance in the carnage and have a little fun between us! Doesn't that sound wonderful?"

Asia was trembling in fear, when Freed suddenly leaned over towards her and grabbed her breast.

"In fact, we can start right now!"

With a flash of crimson light, Valerie appeared on the battlefield and shot forward, a wraithbone glaive held in her hands as she scored a line along Freed's cheek, causing him to release Asia, who scurried into a corner. As Freed sent a few light bullets her way, she leaped back to stand by Issei's side. Freed looked left, then right, seeing Asia attempting to flee, then he bowed.

"I'm sorry shitty devils, but I have to go now."

Both dragons roared in fury, "No you fucking don't!"

Freed darted across the room, grabbed Asia, and threw something on the ground. With a flash of smoke and the distinct sound of a teleportation spell, they were gone.

* * *

Issei summed up his thoughts on the previous encounter, "Fuck Freed."

I replied hastily, "Agreed, but you need to move now! They're probably shifting up the timetable, so move your ass!"

"Don't need to tell me twice. Valerie! Could you help this one? I need to chase him down."

"Sure."

Valerie walked over to the hysterical Katase and gently hugged her, [Sephiroth Graal] forming in her hand.

"Shhh. Shhh. It's safe now, the crazy man is gone and your mommy will be right with us ok? So, calm down, we don't want you to scare mommy when she gets back, right?"

If there's one good thing Valerie picked up during her childhood with Gasper in Romania, it was maternal instincts. Katase would be in good hands. With the rest of the party secured, Issei ripped open a Dragon Gate and teleported to the front of the church. With an almighty roundhouse kick, he punted the doors clean across the church, taking a good-sized chunk of the altar with them when they hit.

I called out from the still-deployed [Bossted Gear], "Knock, knock, motherfuckers! Who ordered a beat down?"

The only one in the main building was a patched up Freed, likely due to Asia being coerced into healing him. Grinning he stood up and adopted a fighting stance."

"Shitty little devil, you know this might be considered an act of war? Now why don't you go back and cry to your whore of a master of how the big bad exorcist stole your little crush and killed her."

Something _snapped_ in Issei. His wings snapped out, his tail uncoiled, and flames formed in his mouth, leaking out of the edges. His legs coiled and then he exploded into motion, hurtling towards Freed like a fighter jet.

[Boost!]

It was at this point that Freed knew. He fucked up.

Issei slammed into Freed before the man could bring his weapons to bear, burying his fist in Freed's stomach. This caused Freed to spit blood and go flying across the room, smashing through pews as he went. Freed quickly recovered, drawing his pistol and unloading the clip at Issei. With reflexes honed from years of training, Issei shot forward, weaving through the shots with ease and swing a right hook into Freed's face. With a roar of rage, Freed brought his light sword down on Issei, who blocked it with his gauntlet. Upon impact, Freed's blade shattered, then reformed as the cell in the handle repaired it, but it was too late. With a second call of [Boost] and massive uppercut that put Freed through the roof, Issei howled his declaration to the heavens.

"For the last Ophis-dammed time! I. Am not. A Devil!"

With Freed dispatched, Issei turned to find Asia.

"She's downstairs, flip the altar. When you get there, make sure to cut Asia free first, we don't want her to die mid-rescue."

Issei bolted forward and flung the altar out of the way, putting it through the nearest wall in the process, then shot downstairs. He emerged in a room about the size of a basketball court to see three fallen angels and about thirty stray exorcists. The three fallen were placing the final touches on an extensive system of shackles that contained a stripped and crying Asia.

The only male fallen angel, who was wearing a fedora, called out.

"Who are you, and what business do you have here?"

"I am the Red Dragon Emperor my business is the safety of that girl right there. In accordance with that, I will give you a choice. Let her down right now, give her to me, then leave this town and never return, and you may live. Stand against me, and perish."

The whole host arrayed against us began laughing, then Issei joined in and smiled. It was not a nice smile. With a *snap* Issei's wings unfurled and he cleared the entire length of the room in the blink of an eye, standing right in front of Asia. With a quick jerk of his hands, her bindings were torn loose from the wall and he flew her back to the other side of the room, gently setting her down, the hostiles too stunned to act.

Asia weakly called out with teary eyes, "Issei…"

"Don't worry Asia, you're my friend. And I always help my friends."

Asia's eyes teamed up and closed, "Thank You."

"Get some rest Asia, and when you wake up, everything will be better."

Gently, Asia drifted off to unconsciousness.

[Boost]

With a quick twist on his foot, Issei turned to face the fallen host arranged against him, then we turned them into chunky salsa.

Well, some elaboration should probably be applied there.

I decided to emulate a particular talking snail, and started blaring a techno beat from Issei's gauntlet. The stray exorcists might not be able to understand the song, but the fallen angels certainly did. About three seconds in, they began to pale slightly as they realized what that song might mean for them after Issei finished working his way through the exorcists. On that note, the exorcists were definitely best described as "mooks" or "fodder". He launched himself above them, held aloft on his wings as he launched a barrage of six Fireballs down on the poor souls. With that first strike, eighteen of the fallen were either blown to oblivion, incinerated, or otherwise taken out of the fight. Since aerial combat is a bad idea when you're indoors with ranged weapons, Issei then tucked his wings in and slammed into the ground, crushing another unfortunate soul beneath his feet. With a quick twist, Issei was facing another exorcist, currently charging at him with his sword raised high. With a jab, Issei plowed his fist into the mook's chest sending him flying into another of the remaining mooks. Launching himself forward into the sky, Issei took out another mook with an axe kick, using the rebound force to spring through the air and spin, slamming his right fist into another mook on the way down.

[Boost]

Rolling through he swept a third mook's feet out from under him, then slammed him into the ground with a punch. Taking a running start, Issei kicked off another mook's face and slammed his knee into the next opponent's nose. Spinning around the exorcist's neck, Issei slammed him into the ground, then bounced up and away from the sword that managed to hit the ground where his head was milliseconds earlier. Scything his leg around his shin slammed into the man's temple and sent him tumbling to the ground. The last three exorcists had formed up into a triangle formation that was slowly advancing towards Issei, while the fallen angels were finally getting their asses in gear and preparing to attack.

[Boost]

Issei darted into the fray once more and grabbed the lead exorcist's sword arm with both hands. Securing his grip, he swung the exorcist around, the distinct *crack* of a shoulder either dislocating or breaking audible, as Issei used the poor soul as a flail to beat down another exorcist. For the last exorcist, who was now trembling in fear, Issei decided to finish it quickly, with a quick kick to the crotch causing him to bend over, followed by a snap kick to the side of the head to take him out of the fight. Quickly leaping to the side Issei dodged the light spear that had been aimed at him. It was finally down to the final three, and Issei still had a trump card to deploy.

The fallen angels were clearly on edge, but not too worried, as they knew they far surpassed any mook Issei had fought earlier. Sadly for them, their defeat would not be elegant. As the two females charged, Issei merely dodged left, letting them overshoot, only for Mittlet, a blonde with a childlike body and bratty attitude, to look up iand see a small sphere of energy floating in front of Issei. She had just enough time to blink before Issei's fist shot out and turned that little sphere into a cylinder of energy, which blasted her into the wall behind her. Embedded in the wall face first, Issei was able to catch a glimpse of her bare ass when her skirt flipped up from the impact, before having to shift his attention back to the other fallen. Wheeling around to let her light sword pass by him, Issei reached forward and grabbed her wrist. Pulling her closer, he sent a quick jab into her temple, letting her unconscious body slump to the ground in a heap. As he stood, ready to engage, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up, while his draconic instincts screamed warnings at him. Turining around he was confronted with a rather impressive energy spear being held aloft by the only male fallen present.

The fallen reeled his arm back and called out, "The name is Dohnaseek, boy! Remember the name of your killer!"

While Issei could easily tank that shot, he felt you should let the rest of the party do something tonight.

"Oh, you activated my trap card."

"Wait, what?"

*Blam**Blam*

Two bullets impacted Dohnaseek, one on his shoulder and one on his left wing-joint, neither hitting a major artery, but still enough to rend flesh and shatter bone. The pain distracting him, Dohnaseek's light spear shattered, as the fallen tumbled from the sky. Impacting the gorund he raised his head to see the air by the Sacred Gear Extractor shimmering to reveal Raynare, one of her revolvers raised and still smoking.

He looked at her in shock "Raynare, why?"

"I found a better source of power than some nun's healing gear, and all I had to do to get it, was join his cause. You would have done the same to me for less power, honestly. Consider this my resignation from the original plan."

And with that, Raynare whipped her other hand forward, sending the kusarigama across Dohnaseek's chest and opening up an impressive slash. The sudden loss in blood pressure dropped Dohnaseek like a rock.

"Nice gouing Raynare, now could you hold on for a little? I have two things I need to do.

Tapping a certain number into his phone, Issei made a quick call,"Hey Rias, I need cleanup of three fallen angels, and thirty-one stray exorcists. I'll explain the rest when you get here, thank you."

Turning back to Raynare, Issei commented, "That was one, this is two."

Standing atop a mountain of defeated enemies Issei, at the top of his lungs, paraphrased one of my favorite lines in fiction.

"I am a sexy draconic god of war!"

* * *

 **Author's Note: Gods this chapter was a nightmare, Freed is a pain in the ass to write. Anyways, sorry for the delay, I have some exams and papers due this week, so I have to devote time to those. I also apologize if the quality dropped a bit,** **again this chapter did not want to be written.**

 **Anyways, next chapter is Asia, Katase, and Muriyama actually joining, along with some other housekeeping things.**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review.**


	13. Acclimation Part 1

Issei and Raynare soon arrived back at base, Asia cradled in Issei's arms. Valerie had already arrived, apparently, and was drawing ritual circles on the ground. Katase was watching Valerie work with a thousand-yard stare.

Raynare turned to us and headed upstairs, "Issei, I'm going to bed right now, you can deal with the girls. That invisibility spell took a lot out of me."

Issei nodded to her, "Ok."

Turning to the one drawing he said, "Valerie, how goes it?"

Valerie replied without looking up from her work, "Her aunt and uncle are too damaged for me to safely resurrect, but I can bring back her mother."

Katase blinked and then shot over to Valerie, "Can you really do that?"

"Yes, and I'm going to do so very soon, so please sit back down, this ritual is very dangerous, and I'll need space. Issei, could you come over here and flare for a bit?"

"Sure."

Valerie set her inscribing tools down and placed the body in the circles, standing by the edge of the circle and placing her feet on the line, she motioned for Issei to stand behind her. Following her instructions, Issei took his place and released his inhibitors, me and Ddraig's astral projections forming behind him.

Valerie glanced back at us and then turned to Katase, who had returned to her spot on the couch, "Huh, so that's what Solus looks like. Katase! What was your mother's name?"

Katase whispered, "Albedo. Momon Albedo"

Turning back to her work, Valerie summoned one of her grails and began to chant.

"Oh, [Grail of Restoration], I call upon thine connection to the forces of life itself! Help me to show this poor soul the way back from the realms of the afterlife! Albedo Momon, I ask that you consider the path I have shown you, and come back to walk these lands with your daughter once more!"

Albedo's body was suffused with light, beginning to gently glow and gradually getting brighter and brighter. With hissing sound the wound in her chest closed, and the body levitated for a second, before a flash of light engulfed the building. When it cleared, Albedo was shot up to a sitting position, clutching her chest and panting. The second the ritual finished, Valerie slumped against Issei, clutching her head as she began to reassert herself in her mind. Katase herself stared in shock, and for a few minutes everything was rather still.

The stillness was broken by Katase shooting forward and tackling her mother to the ground, followed by a crack as Aika appeared by the door, a ring on her finger glowing. While the reunited mother and daughter clung to each other, Aika tossed the ring in a bowl, then turned to Issei.

"Ok, what do you need me for? Valerie seems to have everything under control."

"Would you mind staying here overnight? Valerie is going to stay with Katase, but Asia still needs help and you're pretty good with people."

"Sure, I'll be right in. My parents don't pay much attention to me, so I'll send them a text and I should be good."

With that the party retired to the bedrooms, Katase and her mother were in no condition to go home, and Valerie was assigned to watch them. She led them up to one of the spare rooms, given that the base was built with seven bedrooms on the upper level, there was plenty of space. Aika and Issei himself would keep an eye on Asia. First removing the remains of her chains, Aika brought down some spare clothes the party kept at the base. I insisted on that, given how easily the Kuoh Academy uniform was damaged, so having a secure source nearby for quick changes was important. While Issei turned his back, Aika changed Asia into the clean clothes and set her torn robes to the side, Issei could repair them later.

Carrying Asia upstairs, Issei's draconic abilities allowed him to make out a subtle change in her breathing, signaling that she had shifted from unconsciousness to regular sleep. Placing Asia on the bed, Issei turned to go change into his sleeping attire, when Aika walked in. Given the translucent nightgown that left almost nothing to the imagination, she was attempting to mess with him. In that endeavor, she was succeeding. Smirking at the frozen and stammering Issei, Aika slipped into the bed, wrapping Asia up in her arms like a child. Changing and then returning, Issei climbed in himself, and added himself to the pile, hugging Asia close to his chest. The girl had experienced so much pain and loneliness in her life, she deserved one night enjoying the company of others. With the warmth of the blankets and Asia's body, they all drifted off into blissful sleep.

* * *

The Next Morning:

Issei woke up to Asia clinging to him like a security blanket, her arms having shifted their vice-like grip to him overnight. Asia herself was sandwiched between him and Aika.. Glancing up from Asia revealed Aika, who was looking at Issei with a smug expression.

Glancing down at Asia, Aika said, "She's so cute. I don't think I'll have any problems sharing you with her."

Issei twitched from the shock, causing Asia to stir and grip him even tighter, burying her head in his chest. Aika merely snickered silently.

Sighing, then slowly untangling himself, Issei walked downstairs to prepare breakfast. As he left the room he saw Asia shift her position to latch onto Aika, who smirked, then reached down and pressed Asia further into her breasts. Rolling his eyes as he got ingredients out, Issei set up his equipment and started cooking. Soon the warehouse was suffused by the scent of bacon, sausage, eggs, and pancakes, my own thought on food having influenced Issei's tastes a bit. Hearing the sound of someone walking downstairs, Issei turned to see Katase and her mother, still somewhat dazed from last night, wandering over to the table.

"Good morning you two"

They both jumped from the sudden sound, then Katase looked at him with a worried expression.

"So, last night was real?"

"Unfortunately, yes, what you just encountered was someone known as a rogue exorcist, a devil hunter thrown out from the church for some reason or another. I was filling in for the devil meant to take that assignment, and was traveling by air when I arrived. Why were you all summoning a devil, by the way?"

Albedo spoke up at this point, "It was because my daughter was feeling a bit self-conscious, and when I mentioned it to my sister, she told me to stop by last night and they would help fix the problem."

I spoke up, "So that's why you were at the summoning site!"

"Who was that, and what did they just say?"

"Oh, that's Solus, he's the reason I was even taking the job last night, so in a roundabout way, he's the reason you two were saved by me, but if what he said is true, he's also accidentally responsible for you being there."

"Wait, what?"

Issei sighed, "I'll give the exposition speech and explain everything once everyone has come down for breakfast. Mrs. Momon, is your husband going to be worried about your absence?"

She glanced down at her lap, "He died ten years ago."

Issei bowed, "I'm sorry for bringing that up, I was unaware."

The sound of footsteps on the stairs caused the rest of the room to look up, as Valerie and Raynare entered. Raynare's hair was everywhere, and she had her eyes closed with drool leaking out of her mouth. Shuffling over to the cabinets, she began sifting through them. Grabbing a mug, she staggered over to the coffee machine.

"Coffee. Coffee, then whatever food that delicious smell is coming from."

Valerie glanced over at the zombie wannabe, "She really isn't a morning person, is she?"

Issei confirmed it, "Nope."

A new voice, bright and peppy, joined in, "Morning all."

Aika and Asia were entering the room now, Asia's face beet red from embarrassment and her body trying to hide behind Aika.

"Something happen?"

"Not really, she's been like this ever since I told her what happened last night."

"I'm going to guess you told it in the most suggestive and double entendre laced manner possible just to mess with her?"

"Oh yes."

"As Solus would say, le sigh."

Straightening up, Issei turned to the assembly, "Anyways, now that everyone is here, I should probably explain what the hell happened last night, as well as what I am."

Albedo, Katase, and Asia all replied, "Yes."

* * *

Thirty minutes of exposition and breakfast later:

Ah, stunned silence, its creation is truly an art form. While it gives me a sense of satisfaction that Issei's story has reached the point of causing mental lockups, we had things to do today. Issei snapped his fingers, bringing the three new initiates out of their stupor.

Both of them flinched, then Katase mumbled to herself, then stood up.

"I don't want to be that weak any more, I want to be able to fight back like I do when the perverts are peeking on us girls. Show me how."

"I not only can show you, I can help with that."

"What?"

"I can give you that strength, the strength of a party member, I have several roles left to fill."

"Did you only save me because I fulfilled a role in your party?"

"No, if there's one good thing Solus taught me, it's to be willing help anyone, no matter who they are. Hell Solus said you weren't supposed to be at that site anyways. Why were you there?"

"Because I wanted to be beautiful. Because Aika, Rias, and Akeno have all the average guys wrapped around their fingers and none of the nice boys like you or Kiba will give me the time of day. I wanted to be pretty so that boys other than the perverts would look at me instead of Aika!"

"Well that explains a lot."

"Huh?"

"Aika got lucky in that her figure is mostly the result of a reaction her endocrine system had with her boost. Since no other classes boost the same way the [Bard] does, I can't help you there. But since I did that, you had reason to change, and so you were at the site. Since in a roundabout way this is my fault, I apologize."

Katase replied with a hint of sarcasm, "I accept your apology, even though it was for something you couldn't have ever expected and wasn't necessary."

Issei straightened up, "Anyways, I must warn you, that if you join the twilight world, nothing will ever be the same for you. As Solus told me and experience has confirmed, action will find you, no matter how hard you try to keep your head down. So Katase and Asia, I offer you this strength, but be warned that you will have to use it, no matter how hard you try not to."

Katase looked at her mother, then at the ground, then raised her head.

"I'd like to join."

Asia perked up next to her and stammered out, "I would like to join as well!"

Katase's mother turned to her, "Are you sure, Katase?"

"Mom, I don't want what happened to you to occur again, if it means getting trapped in a war beyond the normal world, then so be it. Plus, kendo has always pushed my drive to improve, this should definitely help in that regard."

Issei nodded then retrieved the contracts from the vault downstairs. Returning and opening up the briefcase he said, "Ok, if you're absolutely certain, Asia, I would recommend the [Druid] class for you, Katase, when you're in a fight, do you try to overpower or do you go for subtlety?"

"I try to overpower, subtlety is Murayama's forte. Speaking of which, would you mind if I bought her to join? I would like to have her with me."

"If she decides to join of her own volition, sure, but no coercion. Anyways, I would recommend the [Barbarian] class for you."

The two of them nodded and each said, "I'll take what you recommend."

Five minutes later, the last drop of ink was inscribed on the papers. The contracts blazed and combined with their chests, their new wings and tails sprouting outwards. Katase manifested the standard red dragon wings and tail, but Asia did not. Instead blue wings that undulated like a cape spread from her back in a triangular shape, reminiscent of a butterfly's wings, while a much smoother than normal tail uncoiled from the base of her spine. Asia seemed to be about to panic, but Issei simply held her shoulder.

"Calm down, Asia, this just means that one of your ancestors wasn't human. Since you never knew your parents, we don't know what it is exactly, but we can work with it. Solus never said anything about you having some exotic bloodline, so I'm guessing he didn't know."

"You would be correct. But the wings remind me of something I read once, just give me a minute to remember."

"Ok, while Solus is trying to figure out just what your bloodline is exactly, I have some business to take care of. Katase, Valerie will set you up with a practice weapon until I figure out what I'm going to have you wield."

"Alright."

'Got it! I'm remembering the wings of Faerie dragons. So, Asia has some sort of Fey bloodline within her, such as elf, fairy, or dryad blood. She got lucky, her [Druid] classification will boost whatever natural talent she had by a massive amount. And considering her talent with her [Twilight Healing], I suspect our little Twilight Maiden will soon become a Twilight Priestess. Plus, fey blood explains why Asia can't really get the whole concept 'evil'.'

"Thanks, Solus."

As soon as he relayed this information to Asia, however, a wind picked up in the room.

A breezy, ethereal voice filled the room, "It is about time you gained the ability to speak with me. I have been watching over you for some time, Asia, my child."

Asia shot upright, "Who said that?"

"I am what you would call Gaea, or the consciousness of nature. I have been awaiting the day you would find me for yourself, for nature shall care for all her children, but I could not do much for you. Any fruits of the forest I sent to you, you gave to be put in the communal pot, and I had no followers who could manifest near the Church to provide you companionship. The followers of the biblical god are many, and their wards keep out all but the most dangerous of my children, I could never send one to you without scaring you away. I apologize for my laxity, Asia, but with your new power, I can finally make my voice heard to you."

"How, how do I know you aren't trying to take advantage of me?"

The voice dropped to a low whisper, centered around Asia's ear. As time wore on, her face gradually grew redder and redder with embarrassment, before tears began to form in her eyes.

"I…I have a grandmother."

The voice continued, "Indeed, I apologize for the actions of your parents, I was most displeased when I heard about what they had done, leaving you to the followers of a dead god."

"Wait what?"

Everyone's gaze snapped to the gauntlet and a now-familiar phrase was uttered,

"Solus, explain. Now."

"Asia might want to sit down for this."

"Is this that thing you mentioned earlier?"

"Yeah, I was going to leave it be, but it appears Gaea forced my hand"

"Alright, I'll translate for you. Asia, could you please sit down? Solus has some important information for you."

"Ok."

Slipping down to rest on the couch Asia turned to face us, at which point I began to speak through Issei.

"Alright, Aisa, there is no easy way to put this, but how much do you know about the great war?"

She loked thoughtful, then replied, "The big war between the Angels, Fallen Angels, and the Devils, right? Issei said they were interrupted by Ddraig and Albion, and I remember one of the priests I healed mentioned something about the four devil kings dying."

"That is correct, unfortunately, the devils were not the only ones to lose their leadership."

Asia's face adopted a look of horror, "Oh no, which of the Seraphs died?"

My voice was as serious as a heart attack, "None, the leader that Heaven lost was god himself."

Everyone in the room, including Issei himself nearly collapsed, "What?"

Asia stiffened, then clutched her knees to her chest, "But, what about the prayers and miracles?"

"Apparently Micheal has been filling in with running the things that do that, that's why you were excommunicated. Without god running the show, people slip through the cracks or have to be dropped, such as yourself. The fact that you could heal devils was a threat to the integrity of the system, so your excommunication was forced."

Gaea spoke up again, "The spirit is correct, grandchild, the god of the bible perished in the war, and his followers continue to serve in his name, often to their detriment."

Asia's voice was near breaking, "So, they sacrificed me for the sake of the Church?"

"Yeah."

Asia began to cry, "I'm happy with that. So long as others were helped, I'm happy. I just, wanted a little something for myself, you know? I thought that god was watching over me, but according to you, he was dead before I was born. So, if he has never been watching over me, was it Gaea gave me the feelings of protection and helped me over the years?"

Gaea meekly piped up, "You are correct, that was my work."

Asia slowly said, "Thank you, grandmother." Then she stood and stared walking from the room.

Gaea called out, "Asia…"

Asia sniffled then started climbing the stairs, "Issei, Solus, Gaea, I need some time to myself. I don't hate you, I just need to settle some things ok?"

As soon as she was out of earshot, I summed up everyone's thoughts on the matter.

"FUCK!"

* * *

 **Author's Note: Definitely unlucky number thirteen. It's late, I couldn't sum up the will to work on it, it's of lower quality than usual, and it** **doesn't have everything I wanted, but the longer I spend on it, the worse it's going to be. So I'm sending it out, and I'm going to try to resolve the rest in the start of the next chapter, hopefully that one will turn out better.**

 **In regards to lemons, I have to save those for later, because if Issei starts banging girls now, the Riser arc is significantly damaged, and some future members might not be available.**

 **Anyways, as always, please read, rate, and review.**


	14. Acclimation Part 2

Unfortunately, the somber mood was broken up by the rear door slamming open, as a clearly pissed-off Rias stormed in.

"Issei!"

Issei turned to her with a bored expression, "Yes?"

Rias grabbed his collar and pulled him close to her face, "What the hell was that about? You go gallivanting off last night to do a basic summon request, and the next thing I know, there's a pile of dead or knocked out fallen angels and stray exorcists that I have to clean up! Not to mention the backlash I'm going to get for this little 'Diplomatic incident'!"

Issei raised his index finger, "Ok, that last point isn't true."

"What!"

Raynare piped up, "As I told Issei when I joined, Fallen Angel hierarchy would prevent it. In order to prevent major diplomatic incidents in a faction literally built from loose cannons, we adopt a policy of 'hear nothing, see nothing, do nothing'. Basically, any discovered incident initiated by our side results in the planner and everyone below them being cut loose from the hierarchy, with the occasional exception. Since myself and Donahseek were the two who planned and executed this mission, no one above us will take action, only our subordinates, who Issei already beat."

"Hold on, you mean to tell me that these fallen angels have essentially been cut loose?"

"Yes."

"And no one is going to be seeking revenge for them?"

"Donahseek pissed off pretty much everyone with his edge lord tendencies. Kalawarner and Mittlet both had their own flings, but like most low-ranked fallen romances, it was more about lust and power than about companionship and trust. As far as I know, there shouldn't be any kickback. Hell, we were operating in devil territory, and if the last week studying with Issei has taught me anything, this was one of the worst devil territories we could have worked in, especially if we got you worried enough to call your brother. Remember, it only works one way, if you were to go around beating up fallen angels in their turf, there would be repercussions."

"Well that's a nice thing to know. But ignoring that little revelation, how the hell did filling in for a summoning turn into an eradication of an entire squadron of Fallen?"

"Long story involving a stray exorcist, an excommunicated nun who's apparently part fairy, and Katase's family."

Katase waved from her position on the couch, "Hi."

Rias sighed, "This is going to take a while, isn't it?"

More Exposition later:

Our story complete, Rias sighed and facepalmed, "Is there anything else I should know?"

I piped up from the [Boosted Gear], "Yeah, can we go with Sona to the familiar forest? I'd like for Asia and Issei to meet some people there."

Rias quirked her head, "Who?"

"Primarily it's so Asia can meet a spark dragon, but while we're there I would like for Issei to have a chat with Tiamat."

Ddriag's voice exploded next to me, "Fuck No!"

Issei turned to look at the gauntlet, "Why's that Ddriag?"

"That chick hates me and I still don't know why! She'd tear Issei to shreds in a minute!"

Shifting me and Ddriag's conversation to the mindscape, I turned to him, 'Oh, come on it can't be that bad, plus when was the last time you two met?'

'About a century after I got sealed, she nearly killed my host that time.'

I shrugged, 'So, maybe she's gotten over it? It won't hurt us too much to try.'

Returning to the material plane Ddraig grumbled, "Fine, Solus convinced me. We'll see what's up with her."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do. Thanks for explaining last night."

"If it's any consolation, I can offer some services to Sona and you in exchange for this event and for the favor I'm requesting."

"Like what?"

"I was thinking a few protection charms and magic storage rings."

"Ooh, could we please give Koneko a replica of Ember Celica, or maybe the Malachite twins' weapons?"

"Sure, I'll throw the latter in too."

"I accept your gift. Thank you very much for it!"

One of the few ways to make a girl like you. Giving gifts that actually mean something, even when they aren't required. Or at least, that's what I've inferred from various sources, both fictional and non-fictional.

* * *

The next several days saw a notable change in activity around the base. Raynare and Asia had moved into Issei's house, and Katase convinced Muryama to sign on to the party as our [Fighter]. With the three new members, work for Rias, and a request from Raynare for a mythic-tier ranged weapon, Issei was swamped in the forge with work. The stuff for Rias and Sona came first. The charms themselves were pretty basic, rings for Rias, Akeno, Sona and her queen and bishops that allowed them to store excess magic and then use it when needed, as well as single-use shielding pennants for both peerages. Koneko was grateful for her new weapons, which Issei had modified slightly from the source material, placing the blades in spring lock systems, so that high heels were not necessary for the foot blades and all four sets could be retracted.

Katase's build presented problems for my inspiration, but Issei came up with some other stuff that helped us figure out what we were going to do in the end. Starting with Katase, her build as a [Barbarian] relied on overpowering opponents, often with large and heavy weapons. Unfortunately, her prior training in kendo caused a few problems, as if we had her change weapons to something more fitting, like a battle-axe or war-hammer, we would be wasting years of training she had already undergone. In the end, it was _Monster Hunter_ that provided the answer. Her mid-tier weapon was a odachi, with an interchangeable blade system built into the sheathe, with different blades having different abilities. While one might claim this weapon was on par with Raynare's daggers, the blade channeled far less energy and was comparatively much more fragile. Her mythic weapon, on the other hand, was the unholy offspring of a katana and a changdao, over two meters in length. The alloy for this monstrosity was two parts Vutrionite, an ore known for its durability and density, mixed with one part Bloodglass and one part Keterite to let it cleave through pretty much anything, hard or soft, with ease, and with a little bit of Boltyx to allow for magic channeling along the blade. It took a bit of inscription work, but in the end, Issei was able to create a sort of 'magic chainsaw' effect on the blade, cycling tiny particles of energy along the edge to further boost the blade's already absurd cutting power. Comparatively, Murayama's set was honestly easy to make. Murayama's mid-tier weapon was as always, derived from _RWBY_ , and took the form of a hybrid crossbow and sword made of the usual enchanted metal. Her mythic weapon was the simplest of the lot, a classical katana. Its alloy was geared more for speed, consisting of two parts Bloodglass, one part Leafmetal, one part Boltyx, and one part Starbrine. The blade came out looking less metallic and more like a crystal, and allowed for spell-swording similar to what Aika used with her rapier, except using slashes instead of thrusts.

Another troublesome build was Asia's, or at least it was, until a Dyrad appeared at Issei's house, carrying a decently sized chest, wrapped up with a red bow. Apparently, Gaea was making up for over twelve years of missed birthday and winter solstice presents, because the crate contained a staff and set of robes that Raynare informed us were near legendary in nature. The robes were apparently called [Call of Nature] a type of vestments worn by the high priestesses of Gaea in ancient times. As her cult died out, the robes were lost, but Gaea held on to a few. The robe enhanced Asia's connection with nature, restoring her energy at an accelerated rate, and produced and interesting reaction with her [Sacred Gear]. Where before, [Twilight Healing] was only able to repair anything still attached to the body and restore energy, now it was capable of, with enough time, regrowing limbs and curing disease. The staff was called [The Silver Maiden], and enhanced life magic casting and rituals, although it only affected the natural side of life magics, compared to Valerie who worked both the natural and necromantic arts.

Soon after Issei finished the last of the new weapons, we got a call from Sona. Apparently, the time was right and she was going to the familiar forest that night. As we had asked beforehand, Issei, Asia, Murayama, and Katase were coming along. As for the others, Aika had a pseudo-familiar in her wind spirits, Valerie's metal connections were already strained by [Sephiroth Graal] so she couldn't safely bond with a familiar, Abe trained her own as a beast tamer, and apparently Raynare already had one she called a Darkness from her days in the fallen. In other news, Asia was pretty much back to her old self by now, thanks in large part to Issei's kindness, a few dates on his part similar to those in canon, Gaea talking to her, and believe it or not, flying. Seriously, we took her out with the rest of the [Party] for aerial combat training and she loved it. She's also much more maneuverable than you would think, and pulled off some impressive power dives for a first timer. She was even able to give Valerie, the best flier after Issei, a run for her money in a few maneuvers.

Anyways, with the date set, and the party members selected, we teleported to the Familiar forest.

* * *

Not wanting to stick around to deal with the familiar master, whom I had informed him about beforehand, Issei turned to his companions upon our arrival and gave them my notes, "Asia, don't worry about finding one, yours should find you on its own. Katase, Murayama, try for something mid-tier, and definitely don't go after the hydra. I'm off to visit an old acquaintance of Ddraig's. Stay close to Sona, she knows what's going on more than the guy in charge of this place."

With those words of advice dispensed, Issei spread his wings and gently took off, waving goodbye as he did. Rising to a good cruising altitude, he sniffed the air, shook his head, then deployed [Boosted Gear]. Five [Boosts] and a [Transfer] later, Issei was gliding down towards the entrance of a rather large cave. Creating a wall of solidified air, he knocked on it three times, then stepped back.

While we waited on the response I sent a mental message to Issei, 'Ok, Issei, do not attack directly, in a straight fight you would probably need at least [Balance Breaker] if not [Juggernaut Drive], and we still haven't figured out how to safely activate the latter. Instead, just dodge anything she throws at you and you should be fine.'

'I still think this is a dumb idea. As you would say Solus, that chick be cray-cray.'

I rolled my eyes, 'Can it, it's go time.'

A rumbling, yet surprisingly feminine, voice echoed from the cave, "Who are you, and what do you want?"

"My name is Issei Hyoudou, this generation's Red Dragon Emperor, and I came to talk."

A steady blue glow emerged from the cave, gradually forming into a wall of fire. Issei blinked, then used a wind element spell to dodge to the side, letting a column of freezing flames roar past.

The voice, clearly enraged boomed out, "Fuck off!"

Issei, somehow still calm, replied, "Might I ask why?"

"Do you know what that bastard said to me before he stole my stuff and then had the audacity to go and get himself sealed off? Do you?"

If a dragon could break out in cold sweat, they would look somewhat similar to Ddraig right now.

'Oh, fuck, I know where this is going.'

Issei spoke up in the mindscape, 'Ddraig, what did you do?'

'You'll find out in a second. Dammit, Solus is going to have a field day with this.'

Tiamat launched into a tirade, "He stole some of my hoard after a one-night-stand and then had the audacity to say he wasn't interested in anything long-term because my chest was too small! Seriously, me, the most powerful female dragon besides Ophis, and 'my chest is too small', all because of that stupid myth that chest size matters for fire breathing power! Everything else about me is perfect, but nooo, the most available and powerful bachelor of our generation turns me down because of an old myth that isn't even true! And then to make things even better, he goes and gets his sorry ass sealed for Ophis-knows how many millennia, giving me no way of getting my stuff back. So, I decide to try refereeing the rating games, because you know, it's something to do. Turns out those prissy shits of devils love nothing more than to constantly host the damn things, so I almost never have any alone time, leaving me stuck here watching the idiots beat the tar out of each other and trying to find someone to talk to, and it's all Ddraig's fault! And he still owes me the shit ton of treasure he walked off with that night."

Stunned silence engulfed us as panting echoed from within the cave.

I slowly piped up, "Hold on thirty seconds, Ddriag is as obsessed with the female chest as Issei is?"

Tiamat shouted back with a bit less venom than before, "Probably yes! At least Albion was a bit more subdued in his obsession with tails and legs, but those two idiots always argued about that shit. At least I have it on good authority that the argument that started this whole mess with the Great War wasn't related to that stupid aspect of their feud."

Issei looked at his gauntlet, then back to the cave, then back to the gauntlet, before sighing and turning back to the cave.

Meanwhile, in the mindscape:

I looked up at Ddraig.

He glared at me, 'Don't start.'

I felt the corners of my mouth and my chest twitch.

'Don't you fucking start.'

The twitching became more pronounced, as flames flickered in Ddriag's jaw.

I managed to gasp out, 'I can't help it'

I then collapsed to the floor laughing. I got in about five seconds before a fireball the size of a semi-truck crashed into me and incinerated me in the most painful manner possible.

Still worth it.

Reforming my body, I turned back to the issue at hand.

Issei called into the cave,

"Well, you left quite a negative impression on Ddraig during your last encounter, but I'm not him, and I decided to ignore his requests and come see you myself, so can we please talk? I can only be here for a few hours. Who knows, I might be able to help you get your treasure back."

A resigned, and somewhat intrigued, grunt echoed from the cave, "Fine, you may come in."

Walking carefully through the cave, Issei emerged into a tastefully decorated hall, a large arched ceiling built in the gothic style hanging above us with extravagant carpets decorating the floor. Before us stood a magnificent pale blue western dragon, a frosty aura surrounding her. Issei walked up to her and bowed at the waist.

Having shifted his tone to a more respectful form he used in formal occasions, Issei spoke up, "I apologize for my abrupt appearance Miss Tiamat, but I'm afraid I only learned of you on very short notice, so I would like to get to know you better before we move this discussion to business."

"Who was it that told you of me?"

"That would be Solus, a spirit that helps me out from time to time. He's annoying, but his information has yet to be incorrect without explanation, and he is quite adept at preplanning. May we move somewhere else to discuss this at greater length?"

Tiamat snorted, "At least you have some manners. Very well, I will converse with you in my study, please follow me."

As Issei and Tiamat walked off, heading deeper into her lair, I turned to Ddraig.

'So, while Issei is busy with Tiamat, could you help me figure something out as a distraction?'

'What.'

'Why did the god of the bible build your [Sacred Gear] to be shittier than Albion's?'

'You have thirty seconds to start explaining before I torch you again.'

'I'm serious! Let me put it this way, say we have two hypothetically equal warriors, each with an arbitrary power of 1, one wielding [Boosted Gear] and the other wielding [Divine Dividing]. For the sake of argument, let's say these warriors have a maximum power cap of 16 times base power. At the start of the battle, both deploy and begin to fight. After ten seconds, [Boosted Gear] doubles and [Divine Dividing] halves, causing the [Boosted Gear] wielder to double his power, then be halved back to base. The halved power is then transferred to the other combatant, doubling his power. Therefore, after the first ten seconds, the power sits at Red 1, White 2. This pattern repeats for another 140 seconds, White's power growing by one every ten seconds, while Red's power remains constant, being halved back to base every time it doubles. After 140 seconds, by some miracle, Red is still fighting, and White has reached their peak of 16. You would think that at this point Red would be able to play catchup and grow to fight White on equal terms, until you remember the other aspect of [Divine Dividing]. _Once maximum power is reached, division continues and excess power is expelled through the wings._ Therefore, the [Boosted Gear] wielder will remain at base power until the battle is over unless outside means are applied. This means that there are only three ways for a [Boosted Gear] wielder to beat a [Divine Dividing] wielder. One, they have a base power higher than the peak power of their rival, two, they have time to build up enough [Boosts] beforehand, then attack their rival and win, or three, they have an outside force interfere to give the wielder of [Boosted Gear] time to build up, the latter I doubt either of you would think of as honorable.'

'Correct on that last bit, but what about [Balance Breaker]?'

'Only works if [Boosted Gear] can multiply faster than [Divine Dividing] can reduce it, and with two identical competitors, that wouldn't happen. Thankfully, no two competitors are identical, but the only way for one of your hosts to win is to master that form better than their rival.'

'So, what you mean to say is…'

'If you and Albion are still pretty much even in terms of host vs. host victories, you are a far better instructor than he is, because your host has to pick the battle beforehand and has a massive disadvantage in a straight fight.'

Ddraig froze, then a rumble came out of his chest, rapidly building into full-on laughing.

'I'm impressed, to answer your prior question, I suspect that it is because of my scale color.'

I nearly face-faulted, 'What.'

'Albion's scales were white, the color of heaven and purity, which god of the bible stood for. Red, on the other hand, was more commonly associated with the devils. Therefore, god was more lenient with Albion because he saw him as the better of us. Either that or he didn't think of the contingency you just mentioned.'

I raised an eyebrow, 'So, this god was either a racist or an idiot?'

'Pretty much.'

'How the fuck did he pull so much shit off?'

'Your guess is as good as mine. Anyways, it appears that Issei and Tiamat are moving on to the main event.'

Issei and Tiamat entered an ornate room with bookshelves lining the walls, a magnificent mahogany desk taking up the center of the room.

As the two parties sat down, Tiamat looked at Issei, then at the table he was taking a seat at.

"I suppose a different form would be acceptable for this meeting."

*Crack*

In a blast of smoke, the dragon sitting before us vanished, replaced by a statuesque woman with long blue hair, the furniture shifting to accompany her change. While I could understand where Ddriag was coming from on her chest size, especially considering beings such as Aika and Gabriel, they were definitely nothing to sneeze at, a bit smaller than Rias's, but definitely above average. The same could be said about her ass. Her real feature was her slim build and shining blue hair. Anyways, she was now standing before us in a rather impressive fur coat that exposed her shoulders and cleavage in their entirety, before closing together at her waist to run down to the floor.

"Why did you come to see me? I know it is not easy for non-devils to gain access to this place, and I doubt you would expend so much effort on a whim."

"Primarily, it was to give other members of my team familiars, they're with a peerage of Devils I trust right now, but my friend Solus knew about you and recommended I come and visit. And honestly, I have to say it was worth the effort."

"Really? [Sacred Gear] hosts tend to have small similarities with their equipment, are you sure about what you said?"

"While yes, I do appreciate bigger boobs, I consider myself a connoisseur of…

'God dammit Solus, I thought we fixed this.'

'Nah, it's funnier this way, besides, I think he's actually getting it to work.'

Issei and Tiamat continued to chat, the conversation shifting from Tiamat herself, to Issei, to some of the spells he had studied over the years, to myself, to why he studied, trained and worked so hard in the first place.

Tiamat giggled, "Really, a harem? That's not such a difficult task, several devils make their peerages into one, why are you waiting it out like this?"

Issei leaned back in his chair, "Solus explained that if I'm not good at caring for the girls, I shouldn't have them in the harem. I have to make sure that I can keep them happy, and so I train to protect and provide for them. A harem where the girls aren't happy isn't one I want to be in charge of."

"Aw, the pervert has a sweet side."

Tiamat leaned forward and gave Issei a light peck on the cheek. From my position in the mindscape, I felt some sort of energetic _shift_ occur.

*Slam*

Issei found his arms pinned to the ground by a now flushed Tiamat.

"Oh, fuck yes I am joining this harem of yours, now give it to me."

Issei, struggling in the grips of the creature that was talking and acting like a nymphomaniac schoolgirl, screamed out, "Bad girl, down, down!"

Unfortunately, Tiamat was either too far gone to hear him, or got off on that sort of stuff, as she wasn't about to stop. Seeing her lips drop closer to Issei's face, I knew I had to act.

Well, if she won't listen to orders and confidence, maybe a pestilence will work. Summing up my best nasal voice I spoke up "Um, actually, can we please do it at a later time? Also, what the fuck just happened?"

Needless to say, my voice killed the mood in about ten milliseconds flat, causing Tiamat to ease up on Issei a tiny bit.

"When? I haven't had sex in millennia, millennia! From the energy I sensed within you from that kiss, there is plenty of it to go around, and high quality energy at that. I have been inactive longer than most beings have been alive, and I will not be denied this! Do you know what all that training to expand your energy reserves has done to you, Issei? It's turned your energy reserves into the equivalent of sexual chocolate for dragons, and I want my share!"

I decided to derail the conversation further, somewhat, in my regular voice, "Could you please wait a few more weeks? The timeline works best that way."

Tiamat pouted, "Fine. But can we please do it soon? That kiss really was something."

"Sure, but we kind of need a way to summon you, so would you be willing to become my familiar in exchange for fights, glory, and a powerful mate?"

Tiamat leaned back for a second and nodded,

"I accept your terms. You do know the familiar contract, correct?"

"Got it from a friend."

"Good, let us begin."

Two magic circles formed on the ground, one under Issei, the other under Tiamat.

"I, Issei Hyoudou, wielder of [Boosted Gear], host of the Heavenly Dragon Ddraig and the Wandering Soul Oblivi Solus, ask that you heed my call and join me as my familiar."

"I, the Chaos Karma Dragon Tiamat, see you Issei Hyoudou as a being of great strength, willpower, and virility. I accept your offer and agree to join you until the day you die."

"May our fates and magic be bound together by the bonds of familiarity."

With a flash of magic, the circles on the ground disappeared, and a smaller embelm in the shape of a dragon's head formed on Tiamat's exposed shoulder, before quickly fading away.

Tiamat leaned in and whispered to Issei, "Please take good care of me."

With a giggle as Issei flushed, she latched onto his arm and dragged him out of the cave, spreading her wings and taking off. Issei detached himself and flew after her a few seconds later, leading them together to the rest of the group. Asia had encountered and befriended Rassei, while Murayama and Katase had each tamed their own familiars, a smaller species of thunderbird and a hellhound respectively. Our familiars collected, Sona's group electing to keep theirs a secret, we teleported back home.

* * *

Having returned from the familiar forest, and with Tiamat settling in nicely, Issei was finally able to get everyone's weapons and armor in working order. Raynare's new crossbow was next to be finished, its alloy of Vutrionite, Ketrite, and Anomium granting it impressive range and penetration, and allowing Raynare to energize the bolts with her light magic. The armors for the new party members were the last thing Issei had to complete, and he made them with style. Raynare's was a form of enchanted leather and cloth, woven into a series of small plates to allow for greater flexibility, while providing plenty of protection to vital areas. Its lack of metal components also made it much stealthier, as there was nothing clanking with her movements. Murayama's armor was the easiest, a lighter take on Samurai armor to allow for a bit more maneuverability, the enchanted plates could shrug off a decent level spell from Issei with little trouble. Katase's armor presented a conundrum. Her class was all about running into the enemy's face and staying there, so she needed both speed and durability. Luckily, the same game that inspired her weapon helped with her armor, a blue-green scale mail affair with a bladed and armored skirt and an impressive set of pauldrons. Tiamat herself received a suit of light plate armor, similar to what Valerie wore, except in dark purple and silver compared to Valerie's red and black. Even with the rarity of dragon-slayer weapons, Issei knew that with our luck, we would run into some, and so was making sure he was prepared. And where there is armor, there must be weapons, so Issei forged Tiamat an emergency mythical weapon. A single bladed great axe, it's alloy of Keterite, Vutrionite, Adamantite, more Keterite, and Bloodglass channeled almost no magic, but was near indestructible and would cleave through armor with ease.

His forge backlog completed, and the rest of the [Party] progressing well in their training, Issei finally was able to crash into his bed for a nice, relaxing sleep.

Issei was drifting off when the sound of shattering glass, otherwise known as the sound of a ward being bypassed by brute force, and a bright crimson light filled the room. Springing up from his bed, Issei slammed out his boosted gear, only for an underwear-clad Rias to impact him at slightly subsonic velocities. Slamming him onto the bed, she gasped out,

"Issei, I need you right now."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Finally got this one out, and I am mostly satisfied with what I came up with here. The dialogue with Tiamat was a little forced, but I couldn't come up with anything better. I honestly wasn't going to include her, until I read Third Fang's latest update of "Go Away I'm Watching Porn" and decided that Nymphomaniac/Thirsty as Fuck Tiamat was just too funny to not include. Anyways, next arc is Riser, going to have some fun with that poor sap.**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review.**


	15. Fried Chicken Combo 1

"What?"

"Oh, don't tell me you didn't want this Issei, I've seen how you look at the girls around you, despite how stealthy you are at it, so why don't we get started?"

"True, I do want this, but I refuse on the grounds that you don't."

"?"

"You're clearly not in the right mind for this, I can smell it, and I don't have sex with girls who clearly don't know what they want. So why don't you, explain to me what's going on so I can help, then tell me how you got through my wards."

Saying this, Issei walked over to his wardrobe and tossed Rias one of his spare t-shirts to cover herself with. As she put it on, he sat down on the bed next to her and gave her a hug.

"I'm betrothed to another pure-blooded devil, who's a complete asshole, and I don't want to marry him. Unfortunately, my father made a contract several years ago, so my entire family is over a barrel because of it. Even my brother, one of the rulers of hell is powerless, so I came up with this scheme as a way to void the contract. By losing my virginity, I would void the contract and escape. As for how I got through your wards, I asked Sona, who hates this arrangement as much as I do, for a favor, and since she couldn't figure a way through, she called her older sister who was able to pull it off."

"Why did you go that route? I'm pretty sure if you told me ahead of time, Solus, Ddraig and I could have come up with something. Now that I know about this, you don't have to worry, I've got your back. Even if Solus doesn't know what's going on, and I doubt that, I'll be there to help you."

"Why would you do this for me? You're not part of my peerage or my family, you're just a dragon who decided to help out because he's bored and his advisor recommended it."

"Because I consider you a friend, and you're a girl in trouble. I always try to help girls I know need it, and I treat my friends like I treat my party members. If you or anyone in your peerage ever need help, you only have to ask."

"Thank You."

As Rias leaned her head on Issei's shoulder, a lighter sound of breaking glass accompanied by a red magic circle appeared on the floor, from which appeared a silver-haired woman in a maid's outfit.

"It appears I arrived just in time, Rias do you know what you could have done?"

"Broken out of that contract? Besides, Issei turned me down, didn't want me to force myself to do something I didn't want, I'll come quietly. Anyways, see you tomorrow Issei."

With that, Rias stood up and walked over to Grayfia.

"Likewise, Solus should fill me in tonight, so I'll be ready by tomorrow."

With a flash, they were gone.

Issei's voice, with barely restrained fury, turned to me, "Ok, Solus, talk."

'It's as she said, she and most of her family are trying to get out of this stupid contract, there's already a plan for Rias to take him on in a rating game, and if that fails, I've got a backup plan.'

His anger seeming to dissipate, he replied, "What's that?"

'Riser is arrogant as fuck and believes himself to be top tier in the underworld. As such, so long as we meet him and get him talking, he'll probably say something we can claim as a duel-worthy insult. We make sure to record that, then challenge him to a duel before the marriage. Even then that's only a backup in case Rias can't beat him in a rating game, and she'll have ten days to train for that. Well, I say she'll, but I mean, we'll have ten days to train her.'

Issei flopped onto the bed and sighed, "Some days, I really want to throw you out and forget you ever existed, but you're too dammed good at what you do. I'm going to guess this is your way of setting me up with Rias, and that you have every intention of jailbreaking their powers to flagrantly absurd levels?"

'Exactly.'

"Goodnight Solus. I'm not happy that you manipulated me, but I am happy with the results a bit."

With that, Issei dismissed the [Boosted Gear] and fell back asleep. I declined manifesting the mindscape tonight and instead floated to a corner of his mind myself. Silently I whispered beyond the reach of any ears.

'That's all I need to hear.'

* * *

The Next Day:

Issei was longing in the Occult Research Clubroom on one of the couches, everyone else out on business for the moment, when an orange magic sigil covered the floor and an explosion of flame poured out of it. From the center of the flames steeped a roguish blonde man in a fashionably disheveled suit, hands in his pockets and leaning back on his feet. The second he appeared, Issei cast a basic recording spell and turned on the recorder in his back pocket.

A voice that women would have found sexy, had it not been dripping with contempt, sounded out, "Hello servant, be a good boy and fetch your master for Riser, will you?"

"I'm nobody's servant."

"Really? Are you a stray devil? Shall Riser kill you for disobeying your master and insulting Riser?"

"Ophis damn it, I'm not a devil. I'm a dragon who works with Rias on occasion."

"Oh, Riser is sorry, run along little newt, if you are even one, and fetch Rias for Riser, Riser has much to discuss with her."

Issei rolled his eyes and cast a basic communications spell.

"Sending: Hey Rias, there's this blonde prick here to see you, could you come over here before I do something stupid?"

"Awww, does the boy need his mommy to keep him in line? Scared he'll bite off more than he can chew?"

I mentally called to Issei, while simultaneously restraining Ddraig in the mindscape, 'Remember Issei, inhale, exhale, and keep recording, this bastard's going down.'

"I would appreciate it if you didn't insult my draconic nature, I gave my blood for this power, and I feel it was well worth it."

"What, was the blood you parents gave you filthier than the mud you currently have in your veins? What sort of low class scum were they?"

"Must you insist on belittling me? Your insults are beginning to irk me, any further and I might need to declare a blood insult."

The situation was prevented from escalating further with the arrival of Rias and her peerage.

"Rias! My love! Riser has journeyed all the way to this primitive realm to see you in all your glory, and he must say, you look absolutely ravishing."

"Riser, how many times must I tell you, I have no intention of marrying you."

"My dear Rias, why must you hurt Riser so? We were meant to be together to continue the glory of the pureblood devils. Though I will admit, that feistiness is attractive, it will be lovely when I finally break you of it."

"I'd sooner have sex with Issei than with you! At least he listens to what I have to say!"

He turned to face Issei, "That little virgin? Please, he couldn't get it up if he tried, in fact, let me show him something."

With that Riser reached back and grabbed one of his peerage members, who I later learned was his queen, Yubellina, and began to make out with them. The girl in question resisted for a second, before leaning in and deepening the kiss, their lips locking together and with Issei's enhanced vison I could make out their tongues mingling together. Riser's hands gradually snaked around and began groping the lady in question. You could hear the poor air molecules trapped in Issei's fists be crushed to oblivion as his hands tightened, and his glare settled on Riser.

"See mortal, this is what a real man looks like. What makes you think you compare to a devil in any sense of the word?"

Issei had gone very quiet from rage, "Why should I compare myself to a different species? We dragons have our standards and you devils have your standards. You devils prefer to marry for purity of species and political gain, which is fine. Dragons on the other hand, seek out powerful mates, which your harem clearly wasn't built on."

I piped up in the mindscape, 'Actually, he built it based on romance archetypes.'

Issei mentally rolled his eyes, 'That makes so much sense.'

Riser formed a ball of firel in his hand, "You dare mock the strength of my peerage! I'll burn you alive for that!"

Issei smirked "Here, you've showed us your team, let me show you mine. So Riser, I see your peerage and I raise you my [Party]…"

Summoning circles formed on the ground as Issei sent out a call to the [Party] to meet up. The [Party] already knew Issei was going to be getting in a pissing contest, and had donned their armor ahead of time.

First was Asia, wearing her full priestess garb and with leaves floating around her upon arrival.

"…A half-fae high priestess of Gaea, and bearer of [Twilight Healing]…"

Next was Raynare, remaining seductive despite the concealing nature of her armor, and using light manipulation to distort her movements.

"…A fallen angel illusionist and assassin…"

Third was Abe, who arrived on her Nightmare, before casually dismounting and dismissing the magnificent beast.

"…One of the few beast tamers able to catch a Nightmare…"

After her came Aika, her wind elementals swirling around her and music filling the air from some unknown source.

"…A smoking hot hypnotist and musician, and the main reason why guys join the school band…"

And finally, rounding out our roster came Valerie, grail held in her hands and wings extended, looking the exact image of a priestess of blood.

"…And last but certainly not least, my second-in-command, the Damphir wielder of the [Longinus], [Sephiroth Graal]"

As the party formed up behind Issei, taking a more tactical a formation as opposed to the erotic formation of Riser's peerage, he let loose with a smirk.

"…I have two more, but they said, and I quote, 'We will not parade around just so you and some other idiot can have a pissing contest, we have training to do to catch up with everyone else.', so my paired swordswomen aren't here right now. And I still have contracts to give to future members."

Riser blinked in surprise, then cocked his head.

"And why are they in such drab and conservative attire?"

"Because I forged it to keep them safe, and this is what effective armor looks like, none of that fictional crap you see in anime that can't even include a kidney belt. I mean look at your knight over there, one stab to the gut and she'd be done for, and the boob-plate? Seriously, one strike and the sword's going to be angled right into her sternum or neck!"

"I see, so ladies, would any of you like to see what a real man can do, compared to this limp-dicked newt?"

Katase made to step forward to attack, but Issei held up his hand.

"Keep your newts in line lizard, or else one of them might have an 'accident'.

"So, you walk in here, insult me, my family, and my nature, treat my ally Rias like some form of property, and now you insult and threaten those under my command? Riser Phenix, I challenge you to a duel!"

"Of course, I'll be glad to show you your place, so I'll be glad to give you the right to request one. In fact, I'll take you on anytime, anywhere!"

Issei let loose a feral grin, "I'll hold you to that."

Issei and Riser continued to stare each other down for the next few seconds, at which point Grayfia arrived and revealed the rating game challenge. Needless to say, Riser was dismissive of Rias and her peerage.

He rolled his eyes, "Are you certain? Hers is barely a third the size of mine, I'll crush her in an instant!"

Akeno smiled, it was not a nice smile, "It's not the size of the peerage, it's all in how you use it. We won't give up without a fight."

Riser grunted at the masked insult, "Fine then! I'll give you ten days to prepare, and then I'll show you just how outclassed you are. Let's go."

With a snap of his fingers and a flash of light and flame, they were gone.

* * *

With Riser departed, everyone else in the room relaxed a tad, at which point I spoke up,

"Rias, are you going to be retrieving your time-stopper?"

"Who?"

"My bishop, he's been sealed away for a few years because his [Sacred Gear] is unstable, but I need all the firepower I can get, so yes, I'm going to fetch him."

I spoke again, my tone completely serious, "Valerie, Issei, go with her."

With that she led us through the building to a massive set of double doors, covered in caution signs and magic seals, both to prevent something from getting out, and to prevent unauthorized people from getting in.

I said one sentence, "Valerie, brace yourself, I'm fulfilling that promise I made to you all those years ago."

Valerie stiffened as everyone turned to glance at her. She slowly turned her head towards Rias.

"Rias, what is the name of your bishop?"

"Gasper, why?"

In the blink of an eye, the wards on the door were torn off and the doors wrenched open with an almighty crash. Valerie stood there a hand braced on each door, staring at the small box in front of her, the effeminate boy within shivering in terror from her entrance.

"G-gasper?"

His head popped up and his eyes widened, "Valerie?"

Gasper had no time to hear a response before he was tackled to the ground by a crying Valerie.

Gasper managed to get out through his tears of joy, "You're alright, you're safe!"

"Yes Gasper, and I've waited three years to see you again, looks like Solus was right."

I piped up from the peanut gallery, "I'm always right to some degree!"

I then promptly shut my mouth from the glare I received from everyone else, even Ddraig.

Surprisingly, it was Issei who spoke next, as everyone stared at the two near-siblings reuniting.

"So, this is Gasper."

Rias turned to him, "How do you know about him?"

"The night I rescued Valerie, both she and Gasper were escaping, but she was unable to keep up and sent him ahead, staying behind to slow pursuit, at which point, her [Sacred Gear] manifested, she passed out from the process, and I swooped in to rescue her, having just finished my flight in. When I was setting up to rescue her, I also learned about Gasper, but Solus told me ahead of time that he would be taken care of by someone else, and I had my hands kind of full with Valerie. So you're the ones who took him in then?"

"Yes. Gasper is a good peerage member, and very good with fulfilling digital contracts, seeing as he never goes outside."

Rias was prevented from saying more as a hand came to rest on her shoulder. Following the arm it was attached to revealed Valerie, cradling Gasper in one hand like he was her child, and considering their upbringing, he basically was.

"Thank you for looking after Gasper for me, I'm forever in your debt.", she said, her voice nearly cracking with emotion.

"It was no trouble at all, you can help repay me by helping me win this thing.

* * *

The next day, after we finally got Valerie to let go of Gasper and let us fill him in on what was going on, Rias's peerage and Issei's entire party headed to Rias's resort in the mountains to train. At first, Rias was confused as to why Issei came along on their training trip and under what authority he was authorized to train her and her peerage. Issei merely told her and her entire peerage to attack him and not hold back. Fifteen seconds later, she understood as she, Akeno, Kiba, and Koneko pulled themselves out of the various craters Issei had imbedded them into, without taking a single hit himself. Gasper was hiding behind Valerie, using her potential wrath as a shield from bodily harm.

Issei stood before Rias's peerage as my voice boomed out from his gauntlet, "Alright, all of you listen up. I'm going to open the training up with the basic concepts we hope to fulfil by the end of the week, and we'll work from there. Each of you will do your own training, accompanied by members of the party, and Issei will cycle between you four to provide instruction. Since Gasper works best with Valerie, and she's the second most powerful [Party] member, he'll train under her."

"Why are you including other members of your party?"

"Because we need to get some of our new recruits ready to go, so while you exercise and when Issei is not available, they'll be your training partners. Anyways, let's move on to our goals and setup. Starting off, Kiba, how exotic can you make your swords?"

The devil in question quirked an eyebrow, "What do you mean by that?"

"Is it basic conceptual stuff like fire, freeze, demonic, etc., or can you go into more esoteric disciplines such as subatomic forces, gravitics, and relativistic properties?"

Issei sighed and swatted the gauntlet, "Normal speak Solus."

I simplified it as best I could, "Can you make one of your swords destroy subatomic forces, be a black hole, or otherwise completely void the laws of physics?"

A shimmering silver sword appeared in Kiba's hand, sparking with blue energy. He looked down at the blade, dumbfounded, before focusing again. This time a pitch-black cleaver appeared in his hand, but nothing else seemed to occur. Tapping the blade, Kiba sighed.

"It appears I can manipulate some forces, but not all of them. That earlier blade wanted to be called "Matter Eraser", but when I tried to make a "Gravity Eraser", the blade came out dead."

I mentally shrugged, "Eh, you win some, you lose some, we'll work with what we've got right now. Other than a few more sword ideas I want to bounce off you, we're going to work on your durability and speed. There's no way we can make you a true spellsword in the time we have, so we'll ignore magic other than your sacred gear for now.

I turned my attention to the next devil, "Koneko, you're going to work with Issei on martial arts, I want to get your speed up a bit, and I recently finished developing a fighting style myself and Ddraig have been working on for a while that should improve your ability a lot."

She cocked her head, "What kind?"

"A derivative of Sidereal martial arts from _Exalted_ , while we'll never be reaching the point of 'Stabbing someone with the concept of childhood toys so hard they turn into ducks', at peak performance we should be able to do the classic 'punch a river in half'. Also on a side note, what happened to the weapons we loaned you?"

Koneko looked down, "Didn't like them. Sorry. Rias has them."

Issei smiled, "It's fine, it was more of a whim for Solus, and I'm glad they're going to some use."

I decided to get back on topic, "Akeno, you have the most work to do out of all of them."

She quirked an eyebrow, "Why is that?"

"You waste the true potential of the Queen piece. Your speed and durability should be on par with Kiba and Koneko, but you only trained your bishop aspect. On that note, even your spellcasting is insanely wasteful, except when compared to Issei."

Issei snickered, "Fuck you too Solus."

Rias looked puzzled, "How is Issei wasteful? High class devils would be hard pressed to supply the energy to cast that ward Serefall had to break through, even with perfect casting efficiency. He would have to be pretty efficient to cast it with the reserves I sensed."

"See, you're assuming that the power Issei displays on an average day is his base power. In actuality, his reserves are somewhere in the range between those used by Ultimate-class devils and Ddriag himself. He just can't tap them as well as he should be able to and he has to use a lot of suppression spells to keep himself unassuming."

Issei flashed a few of the dozens of suppressors he wore on a daily basis, blinking the normally invisible seals into sight for a few seconds.

Metaphorically shrugging my shoulders again, I continued, "Anyways, we're also going to work on training your precision, and see if we can't get you to Misaka levels, you should also be able to gain some control over electromagnetism and plasma, as both can be derived from electricity."

I focused on the last of the peerage present today, "Next up, Rias, you're also going to be working on your magic, especially your Power of Destruction. Right now, it is basically, to quote a certain fanfic, 'magic that can destroy, as opposed to destruction in the form of magic'. Hell, if we work hard enough, we might be able to get you up to harmonics, which let you destroy or stop pretty much anything, energy, matter, fundamental forces, you name it, but I highly doubt that we'll be able to get there in ten days. So, for now, we're going to try and get you closer to the level of skill your brother likely has, instead of what you have right now."

The party had stated staring at the gauntlet, and by extension, me, since I started, and continued to do so in stunned silence as everything I said finally sank in, said silence was finally broken by Rias raising her voice,

"Are you serious about all this, we can really do everything that you said?"

"As a heart attack, any power can become broken as fuck given enough lateral thought, don't even get me started on what the power to build anything in a given field could do. Actually, I will tell you. Super engineer specializing in wheels, took me fifteen seconds to crack spaceflight, and another ten to figure out planet busting. So yeah, all four of you are going to be overpowered as fuck by the time we're done here."

They all looked at me some more, with even more incredulous looks.

"You figured out how to destroy a planet, using nothing but wheels?"

"What? I was on a field trip, we were stuck in traffic, and I was bored as all hell. But, yeah, I mean, a sufficiently large one made of plasma or some sort of super dense material could just cut the planet in half like a sawblade, but you could probably also do something to rapidly change the rotation of certain components of the Earth and tear the planet apart that way. Ooooh, that gives me ideas…"

Koneko turned to my host and flatly said, "Issei. Swat him. I like living."

Issei manifested a body behind me in the mindscape while I was lost in my rambling.

*Pow*

My mental projection rubbed the back of its head. "Ow. Point taken. Anyways, that's the plan, I already covered the extra details with Issei. Don't worry too much, you should be able to win this no problem, but if worse comes to worst, we've got a backup plan."

With that, Issei found a training site with Koneko, while the rest of Rias's peerage went to different areas to hone their own skills. We were running a 12-hour day, so Issei would train with Koneko for three hours, switch to Kiba, then Akeno, and finally Rias.

"Ok Koneko, as Solus said earlier, he finally cracked the martial arts, and taught them to me last night."

"How?"

"I learn at 16384 times the rate of a normal human by using my sacred gear. It took me no time at all to figure it out. Anyways, the core concept is to focus your magic into the strikes in such a way that they become the 'true form' of that strike. Then you can do bullshit like this."

Issei reared his fist back and punched towards a nearby river. With an almighty *crash*, a chasm appeared in the water, perfectly dry. What was impressive was that the water kept flowing, passing over the spot Issei had punched as if going over an invisible tunnel. After a few seconds, the airborne water crashed back into the river, and it returned to its normal flow.

"With these sorts of martial arts, you can basically void a few laws of physics and 'punch' more esoteric objects, such as flames, the ground, etc. So, let's get started!"

The week continued in this vein, with each member of Rias's peerage training under Issei, and gradually developing their abilities to the level Issei liked to operate at.

* * *

Ten days later:

Today was the last day of training, and Issei was running his final evaluations of each member. He gave each a three-hour session, most of which was spent on last minute refinements, and at the very end was a spar with him to see how well they improved.

The first one up for the day was Akeno, who had improved her durability and speed, which was now on par with mid-training Kiba, learned to use her lightning to manipulate other substances, such as iron and plasma, and most importantly, reduced her energy consumption rate. The latter was important because Riser's queen, Yubellina, was stupid powerful, but burned through her energy at an absurd rate, only able to keep going because she had access to Phoenix Tears. Since canon Akeno could fight her fairly evenly, our Akeno should be able to curbstomp her into the ground and still have plenty of power left over to support Rias in attacking Riser. Right now, however, it was time to see what she could do with what she learned.

"Ok, Akeno, today is our last day, so I'll be giving you a few last-minute critiques, but for now, hit me with everything you've got in this spar."

Akeno and Issei rose into the air and began to gather their energy, but halfway through the process Issei called out,

"Begin!"

Unfazed, Akeno snapped her wings into a dive, spiraling around Issei to avoid attacks, and buy a little extra time to get a proper charge buffer. This buffer was a dozen odd spells she would have pre-charged, allowing her snap firing later on in the fight. While it was charging she diverted some of her energy and fired a lightning bolt at Issei, who tanked it and retaliated with a salvo of Magic Missiles, not moving from his current location in the air. Akeno raised a plasma shield to block the strikes, a recent and welcome development of her magic, and rose back up to square off with Issei.

He looked at her and called out, "Ready to turn it up a bit?"

Akeno licked her lips, "Oh, yes"

Suddenly a black mist whipped up and formed into a cyclone around Akeno temporarily obscuring her. The mist condensed into two barriers on her flanks, revealing her with her right arm extended, and the hand parallel to it, with two fingers extended in a v-shape, just as a small slug of metal drifted between them.

"Shit!"

Issei threw himself into a dive, just as a bolt of molten slag tore through the air he was just floating in at several times the speed of sound. Converting the energy from his dive into forward motion, Issei beat his wings and set off a few fireballs near his feet, blasting towards Akeno, who dodged, then raised her hands into the sky. With a crackle of energy, lightning shot into the sky, flowed by a few beams of demonic energy.

"Weather Control!"

Above Akeno, a thunderstorm swirled into being, the sky arcing with energy. Issei corrected his course and shot back towards Akeno, who raised her arm, a magic circle forming in her palm.

"Ion Wind!"

A blast of high-speed ionized air crashed into Issei, forcing him back for a few seconds before he grit his teeth and flew through it b]powering onward to engage Akeno.

"Blitz!"

"Magic Missile Barrage!"

Both mages called their spells at the same time, twenty bolts of homing wind energy shrieked towards the [Queen], while above Issei, the sky flashed with energy, before disgorging it in a massive lightning bolt that illuminated the shadowed battlefield brighter than day. As the concussive blast faded, Akeno lowered herself to the ground, removing a hastily formed iron visor from her eyes, which had prevented her from blinging herself with her attack. She immediately began scanning the heavens, trying to see where Issei had gone to. A howling shriek rose behind her, and she slammed her shields behind her to block the attack. Twenty clangs echoed from the shields, as the magic missiles from before impacted the shields, shattering them like spun glass. Reforming her shields, Akeno had only a moment's notice to feel a pat on her shoulder, before turning around and coming face to face with an unscathed and smiling Issei.

"You missed."

Akeno whipped her body to face Issei and let loose with a blast of energy.

"Chain Lightning!"

"Solid Air Shield."

Akeno's lightning dispersed against Issei's barrier, before he raised his hand into the air and snapped his fingers.

"Finishing move. Dress Break!"

With a woosh of air, Akeno's clothes were torn from her body, leaving her standing there naked. She looked down at herself, then struck a seductive pose and started _giggling_.

"Aren't you the pervert, Issei, do you like what you see?"

I piped up from the gauntlet, "Issei, word to the wise, fighting Akeno is like fighting Aika, there is no way to beat them by modesty."

Beside me Ddraig grumbled, pissed at the situation, "Let this be the second lesson to not let your perversion get the better of you in battle."

"Thanks guys, you're a little late on telling me that one."

"Don't forget about me!"

Issei turned to look back at Akeno, only to see two very _large_ spears of plasma and lightning led in her hands, pointed directly at him, at point blank range.

"Ah, shit."

Issei managed to get his guard up in time, as Akenos spears slammed into him and let loose with the fury of an entire lightning storm.

*BOOM*

Akeno smiled

"It appears I've improved more than you thought Issei, I thank you for helping me become strong enough to protect Rias, but now I think we should have some fun."

Akeno raised her hand to start the impromptu BDSM session, only for a glow to emerge from the cloud of dust from her attack, resolving itself into a sphere of white fire the size of a baseball, gently arcing through the air.

Issei's voice softly called from within the dispersing dust cloud, "Condensed Boosted Fireball."

As the tiny ball impacted the ground in front of her, Akeno was suddenly blasted into the sky by a towering inferno of white flame fifty feet across,

Since her durability had improved over the week, that definitely wasn't enough to finish her, so Issei took to the skies once more, his body igniting with a fiery aura, as Akeno stabilized her flight and did the came with a corona of plasma. Blasts of flame and lightning lit up the sky, the two competitors weaving through the other's shots while releasing their own salvos. Issei suddenly closed the distance again and snap kicked Akeno in the stomach, causing her to bend over at the waist for a few seconds, but those few seconds were more than enough for Issei to cast the spells needed to end the fight, sending Akeno spiraling back to the ground. Flying underneath her weakened form, Issei caught her and slowed her descent, slowly bringing her to a stop in the air, then flying to drop her off in her room so she could get changed.

Next was Koneko's final session, and she was currently back in the sparring clearing. She had improved greatly in her agility training, and was a lot faster than she had been at the start of this, and could reliably track Kiba at full speed. Now, she and Issei would spar one last time to determine the last few edits she needed to make to her style, but most everything had been studied and learned.

Koneko had asked for Issei to provide a different starting mechanism for the fight, one that would be fair for both of them, so the two were currently watching a small pebble fall through the air towards the ground.

The second it touched, Koneko shot towards Issei, who remained a few feet out and launched a fireball towards Koneko. With a flash of light, Koneko _moved_ and backhanded the fireball away. As she closed the distance, she similarly punched two more fireballs out of the air with her bare hands, then struck forward in a punch that unleashed a shock wave past Issei, tearing up the ground behind him. Issei stood there and tanked the strike, then stared at Koneko and smirked. With a blur of movement, Koneko shot behind him and sent a roundhouse kick straight at his head, followed by spinning through and unleashing a right straight, each strike unleashing a blast of energy that blew up clouds of dust, rocks, and trees. Issei ducked under her kick, blocked her punch with his arm, then spun into a mule kick straight into her chest. To her credit, Koneko kept up enough to bring her arms into a block, but the force was still enough to send her hurtling through the air.

Koneko flew towards one of the few nearby trees still standing tree, but instead of crashing into it and tanking the impact as she would have at the start of the week, she instead twisted in the air, bringing her feet under herself and landing on the trunk. She crouched on the side of the tree, held in place by the force of the throw for a fraction of a second, before leaping off to cannonball towards Issei. She flew through the air, then shifted her feet under herself so that she was now running towards him. Cocking her fist back, she prepared to strike towards his face. Only the knowledge that Issei possessed from training her and his draconic senses allowed him to see the tiny twitches in her arm, signifying that this was a feint. Seconds before she entered Issei's strike range, she threw her cocked fist even further back, spinning into a slide aimed at Issei's legs. Impressed, Issei decided to see where she would go with this. With a soft, and in my opinion, adorable, grunt of effort, she locked her legs around Issei's ankles and twisted her body, pushing off with her hands and neck to rip Issei's feet from under him and send him flying into the air. Issei snapped is wings out at the apex of his flight, stabilizing himself. Down on the ground, Koneko sprang to her feet, snapped her wings out and took off to engage Issei. Issei decided to end this, as Koneko had been doing a good job holding her own and deserved a 'break'. Shifting his stance in the air, he set his hands into a clawed shape and waited for Koneko's attack. She did not disappoint. A few yards away, she snapped out her right leg to attempt a flying kick, but as Issei moved to counter it, she retracted her left wing and extended her right wing further. Using her wing as a pivot point, she pulled her right leg back before Issei could grab it, and snapped her left leg out in one hell, pardon the pun, of an aerial roundhouse kick. The shockwave of the strike was impressive even compared to the ones from earlier in the fight, but unfortunately for her, that was blow three-ish of the hundred or so of that caliber needed to bring down someone like Issei. Rolling with the strike, and bringing his arm around to trap Koneko's leg in a version of a single-leg takedown, he spun her around his own body, using the momentum from her kick to further destabilize her. After a few good revolutions, having built up sufficient velocity, Issei hurled her towards the forest at an angle. To her credit, Koneko managed to recover just before impacting the trees, only to be drop-kicked through them by Issei. After ripping up a channel about twenty feet long in the ground, both parties came to rest. Issei hooped off Koneko's stomach, where his feet had been planted, and extended his hand to help her up.

"Nice work, I'm off to train with Kiba, you've improved massively. Work a bit on your counterattacks and make sure to plan for when the enemy can tank your strikes, but otherwise, everything seems to be good."

Koneko nodded, and Issei headed to the next training grounds. This one was covered in the scattered remains of cleaved up training dummies and marks on the ground from various sources. In the center of it stood Kiba, his legs slightly tensed, and his hands in a ready position.

He quickly called out, "Blade of the Siberian!"

A cloudy black and white striped blade formed in his hands, and he moved the second it formed. Turns out, that while Kiba couldn't make a blade out of a black hole, he could make one that utterly ignored any force acting on it, magical or mundane. The inspiration for this was the supervillain Siberian, a projected hole in reality known for being almost completely indestructible. In Kiba's case, however, due to its nature as a creation of his [Sacred Gear], the sword still had a slight weakness to high-level holy weapons and items with sufficient energy to overload the [Sacred Gear], which could temporarily cancel the invulnerability field. The damn thing could cut through pretty much anything else, but it did have a few downsides. First, he could only make a single one of these blades, the blade only lasted for about thirty seconds, there a one hour cooldown period before he could create it again, and dismissing the blade activated the cooldown. Considering Kiba's speed and the fact that the blade didn't slow down when it cut objects, however, he could certainly make those thirty seconds count.

With his already absurd speed cranked up to the maximum, Kiba blinked into range, his blade already moving to cleave Issei vertically in half. Thankfully, Issei was even more bullshit fast, and sidestepped. Even at the absurd power levels Issei operated at, that blade would definitely do damage. Hell, the only things Issei had access to that might be able to parry it would be his [Boosted Gear] with enough energy stored, and his sword Solar.

As Kiba shot past with overextension, Issei whipped his clawed gauntlet to slash at Kiba's open flank, but Kiba summoned a second blade to his left hand to parry it. Issei's armor sparked against the blue sword Kiba held. Leaping backwards, Issei tried to create some space to cast, but Kiba was having none of that. With another blur of speed, he cannonballed into Issei, his blades whirling through the space in front of himself. Issei kept up a steady rhythm of blocking the auxiliary blade and dodging the Siberian blade, until Kiba, in his subconscious aggression, overextended and let the arm wielding Siberian slip past, giving Issei an opening. Quicker than lightning, Issei grabbed the arm by the wrist and pulled, hyperextending the arm and with a quick twist, he brought his knee up into the elbow, his other arm busy guarding against a potential counterattack. The impact forced Kiba to drop the blade, and a follow-up kick sent him spiraling across the battlefield, a fresh sword already forming in his hand. Siberian still had another fifteen seconds left on the counter, so Issei sandbagged, keeping himself between the sword and Kiba, causing the timer to run down and the sword to shatter. There were a few close calls where Kiba nearly got to the blade, but Issei was able to keep up. The dangerous weapon gone, Issei drew the practice sword he had brought, infused it with some magic, and began to duel Kiba with earnest. Their swords sparked off one another, Kiba's strength training allowing him to withstand the sheer force Issei could put behind his strikes, compared to the start of the week, where a single block had sent him to his knees. Shifting his stance, Issei took up a two-handed grip on his sword, while Kiba set up to engage in the Florentine style. This time, Issei initiated the combat, to see if Kiba had learned from earlier in the week. As Issei lunged forward with his blade from Kiba's right, Kiba used his right-hand sword to block, and spun his left-hand sword to counterattack, at which point Issei disengaged and began to attack again, increasing his swing size for a bit more power, but making sure his windup wasn't excessive so as to leave openings. Kiba was matching him evenly, using one sword to block while the other countered, as opposed to earlier in the week when he had been using both swords for the same task, using far too many cross blocks and attacks with both blades at the same time. Issei decided at this point it was time to end the match, took up a one-handed grip on his blade, and began to spellsword. Issei's sword was engulfed in flames and a vortex of air formed around him. Kiba tried to create swords to counter, but Issei was able to just punch through. As Xyklon says, power equals power, no matter the type, and Issei had plenty to spare. A blast of wind and flame launched a blazing Issei towards Kiba, who surrounded himself in ice and water, hoping to slow the spread of Issei's flames. Yeah, said flames proceeded to explosively flash-boil the water and sublimate the ice, creating a concussive blast that sent Kiba flying, only for a Fireball to blast him into the ground, where he opened his eyes to Issei's blade at his throat.

Issei smiled, "I win."

For a second, I saw a grimace of annoyance cross Kiba's visage, before his trademark mask slipped back over it.

"In that case, I guess I still have a long way to improve.", he said, climbing back to his feet.

Issei nodded, "For some of the stuff Solus alludes to, yes, but for this fight you're at a good level, and there's not much we can do for it at this point. Anyways feel free to either call it a day or get in some last minute practice, I have to go take a look at how Rias is doing."

Issei stood in the final clearing of the day, directly across from Rias. She was wearing the weapons Koneko gave her, as apparently, they helped a bit with her combat, and didn't hamper her spellcasting.

Issei nodded his head in affirmation, "Alright Rias, I'm ready when you are."

Rias returned the nod, then slammed her fists together, the claws interweaving above them, "Got it, Armor of the Succubus!"

This was Rias's latest development, a form of armor made from Power of Destruction infused into her body. It took the form of a skintight layer of Power of Destruction growing to engulf her body and turning her skin red, while fields of energy surrounded and turned her hair black. Flickers of the opposing color shivered across her form, black on her skin and red in her hair. There was an unfortunate side effect where the spell shredded every stich of clothing except her bra and panties, fortunately it created a second layer of energy clothing above them, but it was even less conservative than the Kuoh academy uniform. The end result looked like something straight out of a monstergirl anime, and considering Rias already had the wings, she only needed the tail to complete the look. Personally, I blame Aika and Akeno for the clothes-shredding feature, because I know Issei didn't come up with it. While I believe Sirzechs already could do something similar, and his was much stronger, this was still a major step for Rias and would help even the odds a lot against Riser. Thanks to a few techniques Ddraig and Issei knew and taught Rias, the Armor cost much less energy than you would expect to passively maintain, consuming some of the air around her extremities for extra power, but it did not do so near to her face so as to prevent accidental asphyxiation. As a final bonus, the energy condensed around her weapons, giving the blades a matter disintegration aspect. Rias, unfortunately, had been unable to achieve true harmonics, but her Power of Destruction was now nothing to sneeze at and could even wound Issei, as overpowered as he was.

With her armor manifested, Rias drove her heeled foot into the ground and hurtled towards Issei, who responded in kind. Due to Rias's increased control of her magic, it was no longer safe for Issei to fight barehanded, so [Boosted Gear] was summoned and Issei cast a few fire spells to engulf his limbs and provide protection. Raising his arm in a block, he deflected Rias's strike, bringing his opposing leg up in a kick. Rias's armor tanked it, but Issei hooked his leg behind hers and pulled her in. Issei's fighting style was variable, and as such, could work at various ranges, while Rias, once she discovered this trick, developed a clawing based style, which required slightly larger windups and room to maneuver the claws she had received from Koneko. At the range they were at, Issei could get out a few more strikes per second and had a bit more capability, which was enough to give him an advantage.

Issei let loose with a flurry of blows, the strikes pouring down onto Rias's body but glancing off her armor. Rias tore herself free, her talons tearing at Issei's thigh as she escaped, his wards and flames keeping her from doing more than a scratch, but it was still impressive. Issei reset to his ready position, and turned up the heat, pouring more power into his flame aura. Rias's armor functioned very similarly to Issei's more powerful wards, possessing a bleeding array that absorbed the force and energy of attacks and used it to bolster the defenses. As Issei, and by extension Rias, knew, the best way to beat these defenses is to punch through with more power than the absorption system can handle. With a blast of heat that charred the nearby trees and turned the sand under his feet to glass, Issei shot forward to crash into Rias, white-hot flames splashing against crimson and black flesh. Ever so slowly, as Issei chained a series of grapples and strikes together, he began melting through Rias's armor, with a final punch to her diaphragm forcing the air out of her lungs and sending her sprawling to the ground, her armor fading as she lost focus. Seeing as she was clad in only her underwear, Issei turned his back and walked over to the edge of the now-enlarged clearing to pick up a blanket that was hung there for this exact reason. Issei wrapped her up to protect her modesty, and carried her back to the house, she was exhausted from using that form and had shifted from unconsciousness to asleep on the ground. As Issei carried her, for a second it felt like Rias had shifted closer to cling to his arms, but it was probably just my imagination.

* * *

With the week of training over, we all headed to relax in the hot springs on the premises. As Issei leaned back and soaked in the spring, he contemplated how much everyone had improved. Rias's peerage was definitely at an acceptable level, with Rias probably about the same level as Riser in terms of usable power, and possessed the training and growth capability to reach her brother's level in the future. The rest of her peerage wasn't too far behind, somewhere on the level of Riser's queen, and could definitely beat most opponents on their own in favorable conditions. Gasper was actually a little bit ahead, due to his familiarity with his trainer and her drive to improve him. The only problems they would have with this fight were the two Phenixes on the field, Riser himself and Ravel, because of that bullshit regeneration. The rest of Riser's peerage might as well be fodder compared to Rias's elites. Rias and her peerage weren't the only ones who improved over these ten days, the [Party] was also able to finally get in some proper training, as opposed to the usual after-school practice Issei had them preform. Valerie, Aika, and Abe, as the three veterans, were still at levels similar to before the week, but could still probably hold off or even beat almost any opponent short of an ultimate class devil on their own. Asia and Raynare, due to their prior experience with the supernatural, took to the training much more effectively, and were somewhere on the level of Akeno or Rias now, with Asia lagging a bit behind due to her non-combative nature. Murayama and Katase were the weakest, about the same strength as Kiba midway through the week, and would not be catching up very soon, seeing as how most of the [Party's] growth could be attributed to Asia and Valerie practicing with their life magics and [Sacred Gears], helping boost their rate of growth, but leaving the two aforementioned healers a bit burned out. Issei told them to stop, but then Valerie went into her 'Big Sister' mode and all arguments were rendered invalid. So, our two medics were benched for the next week or so, hopefully Kokabiel took a bit longer than that before letting loose. At least we had acceptable tanks now, the [Party] had had a pretty awkward construction, being almost entirely support classes. Hell, none of the candidates for the three mage classes were available for another two arcs, so we'd be down a lot of major magical firepower. Thankfully, the party veterans could fill in where needed, they were just that strong.

Issei was jolted from his reverie by a splash nearby, followed by something soft pressing into his arm. Turning his head revealed Rias leaning on him, a worried look in her eyes.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Nearly positive. Plus, if you don't win, I was recording the conversation I had with Riser. Worse comes to worst and you lose the rating game, give the letter I have in my room to your parents, I teleport in, use the video I took when I met him to declare a blood insult and redeem my prior claim to a duel. In that case I'm coming out swinging, and Asia still has some holy water I can use if things really get desperate. So, all in all, we have three plans to break the betrothal, and considering how impressed Solus seems at your current strength, we might not even have to resort to plan B."

"But how do I beat an opponent that can recover from any non-fatal wound without killing him?"

"Pain or Endurance."

"What?"

"Did I really not cover this earlier? Solus told me about it, but I guess we forgot to tell you. In order to beat high-power regenerators without killing them, you have to break their will to fight. In order to do that, you have to cause so much pain their minds basically snap, and they forfeit out of fear. The example of this Solus told me was an insect controller beating a regenerating fire dragon by melting his nuts off with brown recluse venom, then injecting pepper spray directly into his eyes."

"Mao. That's terrifying."

"Yes, but it's also scary effective, so when you fight Riser, go for the nerve clusters, and try to get Akeno to back you up, her electricity is much better for neural damage than your disintegration is."

"I'll…keep that in mind."

"Your other option is to burn his regeneration out. He draws it from his demonic power reserves, and all you need to do in that case is burn through his faster than he can burn through yours. Considering the fact that you can use consumed matter and energy to fuel your Power of Destruction, I suspect the battle is going to come down to a slugfest between yourself and Riser. But you'll be fine. If you go into this thinking you'll lose, you will. Fight believing you'll succeed, and you're more likely to do exactly that. And as I just said, even if you fail, according to Solus, I won the duel in the original timeline, and I'm even stronger now. So, you're getting out of this marriage one way or another, I swear that on my honor."

"Thank you Issei."

"It's no problem."

With that, Rias left the spring and headed to bed, leaving Issei alone with the voices in his head.

'She's going to win, right?'

'I'll give her eighty percent odds on victory, provided Riser doesn't pull something out of his ass. You already talked to the girls about our terms for the duel, correct?'

'Yeah, they're all willing to help Rias escape, especially Valerie, they agreed to follow my request.'

'Alright, get some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow.'

Issei hauled himself out of the spring and retired to bed. After putting on his sleepwear, he eased himself onto his mattress. A few minutes later the door creaked open, and the muffled sound of bare feet sounded on the floor. Glancing up, Issei sighed and scooted over, as Asia and Rias climbed into bed with him, Valerie was spending the night with Gasper. Surrounded by his trusting friends, he fell asleep, ready for whatever the next day would bring.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to get this one out, but 9000 words is not fun to write. Anyways, I figured I would** **provide a very rough power scale of relevant characters as of right now, so here it is. Please note, this is not very accurate and may be subject to change, but it's a decent idea of where everyone stands.**

 **-Ddraig  
-Issei (Total Power)  
-Sirzechs  
-Issei (Usable Power)  
-Valerie  
-Aika, Abe  
-Riser, Rias, Akeno, Raynare** **  
-Asia, Gasper  
-Yubellina, Koneko, Kiba  
-Murayama, Katase  
-Rest of Riser's Peerage**

 **Anyways, next chapter will be the Rating Game and Issei's duel. Yes, Rias will lose the Rating Game, but it will be much closer than it was in canon.**

 **As always, please read, rate, and review.**


	16. Fried Chicken Combo 2

As Rias and her peerage set off to the underworld for their rating game, Issei and the party headed back to their base. Thanks to Tiamat being the official referee for these games, we were able to watch the match unfold. The battleground was a replica of the school, just as it was in cannon, and both sides were preparing to deploy.

Tiamat's voice echoed through the air.

"The rules of this game are as follows, each peerage has been designated a 'base', the old school building for the Gremory peerage, and the main school building for the Phenix peerage. 'Bases' are to be counted as enemy territory, and [Pawns] may [Promote] there. Battle will be won when the opposing team's [King] is either eliminated or surrenders. Battle is to be joined in thirty…twenty-nine…"

Honesty, any zone being designated as Riser's 'territory' was superfluous, as Rias didn't have any [Pawns] to [Promote]. Anyways, from what I could see Kiba held a shiny crystalline cylinder in his hand and was preparing to take off. Akeno had her wings out, ready to take to the skies and provide artillery support. Finally, Rias was to the rear with Koneko and Gasper next to her, likely waiting for their roles to come up.

"three…two…one…Begin!"

Kiba exploded into motion, shooting off into the woods around the old school building. He briefly stopped at a tree, at which point he pulled a length of something from the cylinder he was carrying, and tied the end to the tree. Taking off again and zooming through the forest, uncoiling what I now recognized as fishing line behind him, he set up a perimeter of lines at a bit below hip height. Finishing up by tying the line off to the same tree he started from, he returned to the rest of the group.

Valerie smirked next to us as I queried from the gauntlet, "Why is he setting up a tripwire without any sort of alarm? There's no point in…Oh, that's no tripwire."

My confusion was resolved by Gasper shifting into a swarm of bats, each flying out to perch on the trees by the perimeter with a clear view of the lines. My suspicions were proven true in the next few seconds as Riser's vanguard zoomed into range, consisting of three of his [Pawns], the two maids and the belly dancer, later revealed to be. They likely thought this would be an easy assault, and considering they were approaching promotion territory unopposed, it would have been.

Unfortunately for them, a certain time-stopping Damphir was waiting for them, and with a flash of light, he exerted his powers.

High speed devil legs met immovable time-locked wire in a gush of arterial blood, the impact not enough to sever their legs but certainly enough to cut through to the femoral artery. The [Pawns] flipped over the tripwire and collapsed to the ground screaming in pain, before passing out from the rapid blood loss and being consumed in blue light.

Tiamat sounded out the call of first blood "Riser Phenix, three [Pawns] eliminated."

Gasper's bats retreated and reformed near Rias, the boy shaken, but not broken. While Rias calmed Gasper down, Kiba shot off, likely to remove some of the wires. With Riser's initial strike blunted, Rias seemed to be moving to counterattack.

Once Kiba returned, he, Koneko, and Gasper took off for Riser's base, while Akeno took to the skies above, Rias following a fair distance behind. While this might seem like armchair leadership, the fact was that Rias couldn't spare the numbers needed to dedicate a bodyguard. Akeno needed to take down Yubellina, one of the two actually dangerous combatants Riser fielded, and the rest of her peerage had to fight at three-on-one odds already, removing a player to guard the [King] would reduce that to five-on-one. Rias and Akeno were the only ones with enough power to have a chance at bleeding Riser's energy dry, so they had to conserve energy for the endgame.

* * *

As they approached the gymnasium, Kiba suddenly shifted his position to block a series of strikes from their flank, Riser's [Knights] beginning their assault

Kiba stepped back, his matter disintegration blade deploying in a fraction of a second before he reengaged. His opponent raised her zweihandler to parry the blade, only for her sword to be cut clean through on contact, Kiba's blade continuing on its original path to impale her in the chest. She barely had time to register her blade breaking, let alone her wounds, before she was teleported out. Barely pausing in his motions, Kiba continued on to engage the other [Knight], who began dodging as best she could.

"Riser Phenix, one [Knight] eliminated."

While Kiba engaged the forces outside, Koneko and Gasper continued on, sparing only a quick backwards nod to Kiba. With an almighty *Crash*, the [Rook] slammed through the gymnasium doors, the [Bishop] right behind her, to see the enemies arranged before them. Currently occupying the gym were the blue-dressed [Rook], the green-haired [Pawns], and the [Pawn] in the red dress with blue hair. Koneko knocked her haed towards the [Rook], to which Gasper nodded, then darted around her to engage. Koneko instead turned to the three pawns arrayed before her, the twins already charging with their chainsaws out. As both swung down, Koneko raised her arms and caught the blades, the teeth _sparking_ off her palms. Both of the [Pawns] gaped in shock before being hauled around and thrown into the nearest wall.

Meanwhile, myself, Issei, Ddraig, and Valerie all facepalmed.

I screamed out in exasperation, "Does anyone in this damned world know the meaning of the phrase, 'Dodge!'?"

Issel nodded, "If we ever do training again, I'll make sure it sticks."

Koneko herself was already sprinting for the wall, breezing past the remaining [Pawn] before they had time to react. With two literally earth-shaking strikes that set the lights flickering and dust raining from the ceiling, Koneko punched them the rest of the way through the wall and off into the distance. A few seconds later,

"Riser Phenix, two [Pawns] Eliminated."

Meanwhile, Riser's [Rook] sprinted towards Gasper, zig-zagging in an attempt to avoid [Forbidden Balor View]. It wouldn't have helped, but unfortunately, Gasper was still a bit shaken up from earlier, and the sight of a girl twice his size sprinting at him caused him to flinch and start mumbling to himself.

As she launched a spin kick at Gasper, the [Rook], who I later learned was called Xulean, called out, "Your master falls today for the glory of Riser Phenix, and there is nothing you can do, you scared little boy!"

Her foot connected with Gasper's head with a sickening *crack*, sending Gasper spinning across the Gym. His opponent gave him no time to recover, charging in and letting loose a flurry of strikes upon the [Bishop].

With a final cry of, "Begone!", a kick was sent into Gasper's stomach, sending him flying back.

But as Gasper flew through the sky, he twisted to land on his feet, skidding a few meters on the ground and standing back up. The expression on his face slowly shifting.

His voice shaky from a minor concussion and adrenalin, Gasper managed to get out, "I'm not done here yet. Rias is my [King] and took me in when no one else would, and was the second person to ever love me. I will not fail in protecting her! My sister made sure of that!"

He set his feet and leveled a glare at his opponent, his eyes briefly flashing crimson, "So…Let's go for a _walk_."

The [Rook] charged towards him, "Fall like every other loyal fool in history!"

Gasper reached into the bag at his waist and pulled out a sheet of paper. He placed it in the palm of his hand so that it would stay there and set his stance, his expression finally settling on something absolutely feral.

She snapped her leg out in a full-strength attack, as Gasper just stood there, "You really think paper will stop me?"

*Snap!*

Gasper stood there, his half-lidded eyes staring at the piece of paper held up in front of the [Rook's] leg, which had formed a second joint midway down her shin, a shard of bone sticking out. Gasper took his eyes off the paper, which gently fluttered to the ground, before turning his gaze on poor Xulean, who was beginning to process the pain of breaking her own leg on an immovable object.

With Xulean's body frozen in midair right before she began to twist in pain, Gasper shot around her, pushing his [Sacred Gear] to the limit as he used newly-learned umbrakinesis to conjure a bed of spikes beneath Xulean.

Taking a few steps back, Gasper finally returned Xulean to the world of the present, where she fell upon the razor points arrayed around her.

Her leg broken, and impaled multiple times, the [Rook] gave up the ghost.

Tiamat's voice called out after them, "Riser Phenix, one [Rook] eliminated"

* * *

Issei turned Valerie,

"What in the realms did you teach him? I know he wasn't this brutal at the start of the week."

The girl in question set her jaw,

"I taught him most of the basic stuff, combat styles, [Sacred Gear] control, and endurance. I also gave him a temporary mental modification that lets him trance through the battle. And before Solus raises a stink, yes, I did ask his permission and explain everything before I cast it. I don't want this on his conscience. Gasper is many things, but a fighter is not yet one of them, and I'm not letting this half-cooked chicken be the one to re-break his mind like our parents did."

Tears began to form in her eyes,

"He'll fight and win, and then when everything he had to do catches up to him, I'll be there to help him get through it."

* * *

While Gasper tore Xulean a new one, Koneko smashed the last [Pawn] in the Gym apart, the girl's battered body and broken staff teleporting out.

"Riser Phenix, one [Pawn] eliminated."

Koneko turned to a panting Gasper.

"Come on Gasper. We have to go on."

Both of them exited the gym to come upon a scene of complete carnage. Kiba stood there, blades flashing through the air and clusters of swords springing out from the ground below him as he held off _almost everyone else._ Seriously, I knew the guy had conviction and was now stupid strong, but soloing a [Knight], a [Rook], two [Pawns], and two [Bishops] was pretty absurd, especially considering one of those [Bishops] was Ravel, a high-class devil and another regenerator. The only people he wasn't fighting were Yubellina and Riser, and a few explosions from above signified where the former of those was, Akeno was definitely giving the other [Queen] hell. Looks like both Rias and Riser were waiting for the climax to show their faces. Rias was doing so to conserve power, and for Riser, it was because he got cocky and didn't realize how much training Rias had done.

Gasper turned to Koneko,

"Go, I'll be on your flank."

Koneko nodded and shot into the fray, Kiba noticing her in seconds and disengaging to stand beside her. Meanwhile, Gasper shifted to his bat form and flitted to surround the enemies from the air.

The two Gremory devils stood shoulder to shoulder, and sprinted to reengage their opponents.

Koneko sprang into the air and landed, punching the ground with both fists. In response two giant fists of earth erupting from the ground to send one of the enemy [Bishops] spiraling into the air before they had the chance to cast any new spells. A follow-up kick from Koneko sent a blast of concussive air slamming into her opponent's chest, causing the [Bishop] to fall back to earth, coughing up blood. Even nerfed as heavily as they were, Sidereal martial arts are bullshit.

Koneko had no time to follow up, being engaged by the remaining enemy [Rook] almost immediately, but considering the usual durability of [Bishops]…

"Riser Phenix, one [Bishop] eliminated."

…yeah, that was plenty of damage.

Kiba, now that the press of enemies on him had been reduced, decided to start ending this. He was currently locked in combat with the enemy knight, steadily forcing her now magically-strengthened blade back, but not fast enough. A quick pulse of Gasper's powers gave him the time to shift to a one-handed grip and summon his Siberian blade. Blurring into action against the [Knight] and nearby [Pawns]. Thirty seconds later, as Kiba's blade dissolved, Tiamat was once again calling out,

"Riser Phenix, one [Knight] and two [Pawns] eliminated."

An echoing *slam* drew our attention back to Koneko, who was standing over the last [Rook] in the middle of a ten-foot crater, her fist retracting from where it had been embedded in the girl's stomach. As Koneko walked out dusting off her hands, blue light flashed behind her.

"Riser Phenix, one [Rook] eliminated."

The entire party turned to face Ravel, who was hovering in the air a few feet away. A bead of cold sweat formed on her forehead and she spoke out.

"Ok, Riser can deal with the rest of you if he really wants Rias. I still don't have the family pain lessening techniques down yet, and I'd rather not experience all this firsthand. But I can at least do some damage in leaving."

Ravel vanished in a massive white fireball, sun-temperature flames washing over the hastily-erected defenses of Kiba, Koneko, and Gasper. When the flames cleared, Ravel was nowhere to be seen, until Tiamat cleared the mystery up.

"Riser Phenix, one [Bishop] retired."

* * *

I piped up, "Ravel used Selfdestruct, it's only partially effective."

Issei rolled his eyes at me.

* * *

As the ground-based members of the peerage regrouped, the sky above them suddenly lit up, revealing Akeno soaring through the air. Her lightning snaked towards Yubellina, who was diving through the blasts, barely managing to escape. The enemy queen dove and zoomed down low over the ground, seeing the rest of her peerage eliminated. She pulled out of her dive and rose up a bit over their heads. With a grim smirk and a quick twitch to dodge another bolt of lightning, Yubellina grit out through her teeth,

"It seems my fellow devils have all been wiped out and placed us at a disadvantage. Allow me to even the odds a little."

As Yubellina soared back into the air to reengage Akeno, the ground below Kiba, Koneko, and Gasper began to glow orange. The three tried to escape, but given that they had just had to fight an entire peerage and took a Phenix-grade fireball to the face, they didn't have enough energy at the moment to block effectively or escape. A massive conflagration of energy erupted from the ground, blasting a crater the size of a parking garage in the ground and sending the defeated forms of Kiba, Koneko, and Gasper spiraling into the air.

Tiamat called out Rias's first losses of the game, "Rias Gremory, one [Knight], one [Rook], and one [Bishop] eliminated."

As Yubellina rose back into the air, an explosion spell readied on her fingers, she was greeted by a fierce glare from Akeno.

"Now, that wasn't very nice. You need to be punished."

Akeno raised her hand to the heavens, a hum of electricity filling the arena, only to have to dive to avoid a gout of fire that erupted from her flank, Riser finally arriving to support his [Queen]

With Riser's appearance, it was time for Rias to enter the battlefield, flying up to float behind Akeno.

Both sides floated there for a few seconds, the [Kings] and [Queens] staring each other down for the finale.

At some unspoken signal, both sides erupted into motion, gouts of flame, explosions, bolts of lightning, and disks of Power of Destruction cleaving through the air to smash against defenses or be dodged by the enemy.

The fight wore on for several more minutes, but something didn't seem right. Akeno was beginning to flag a bit, and her attack quantities had dropped off.

I turned to Issei, "Is it just me or is Akeno burning through her magic faster than she should be?"

He nodded, "She is, but those spells shouldn't be draining her that much. Something's up."

The remaining enemies smiled.

Riser spoke up, "Looks like your [Queen] is running out of energy, Rias. Too bad, her spells have much potential."

Akeno cocked her head, "You really think all my hand movements are for the spells I'm attacking with? Rias, be a dear and kick him over there, would you?"

Both of them flinched back, "Wait, what?"

Rias nodded, "Sure."

Rias set out a snap kick, sending Riser spiraling to recover next to Yubellina, when a glow from above caused them to look up, without the tunnel vision they previously had.

Yubellina squeaked out, "Oh fuck."

The sky above them was engulfed in thunderclouds, the shadow from them originally masked by the dim light of the battlefield, but now they sparked with energy, lighting up the battlefield. Nearby, Akeno's hair slowly fanned out from static discharge as Rias flitted behind her. Above Yubellina and Riser, the clouds bulged as a sphere of electricity formed.

Akeno's grin went feral.

"Beat this."

There was a flash of light I suspect would not look out of place after a solar flare, and a column of electricity as big around as a car appeared, connecting the ground to the sphere in the heavens. A fraction of a second later, the shockwave from the strike reached our ears through the audio component of or spell, unleashing a deafening * **BOOM!*** that cracked some of the glasses sitting on the table nearby and left pretty much everyone's ears ringing **.** Thank the divines for Issei soundproofing the base, otherwise we would have had a lot of awkward questions with the police later today.

Her attack delivered, Akeno finished up by calling its name, "Smite!"

As the spots and glare faded, it revealed Riser's body hovering over that of his queen, chunks of charred flesh as big as my palm flaking off to be replaced by fresh skin as he slowly regenerated. Yubellina was visibly charred and being engulfed in the teleportation spell, despite having been shielded by her [King]. With a flash of blue light, she was gone. I felt a small amount of appreciation for Riser in protecting his [Queen], but it was a drop in the ocean of hate I already had.

"Riser Phenix, one [Queen] eliminated."

Riser grit his teeth and let loose with a towering blast of fire in retaliation, only for it to be cleaved apart to fly around Akeno, revealing Rias, [Armor of the Succubus] deployed, and claws extended.

Riser shot towards Rias, a trail of fire forming in his wake. Akeno shot off to flank, while Rias set her stance in the air.

Akeno called out, "Twin Chain Lightning!"

Riser returned the favor, "Vermillion Blaze!"

Multicolored flames met lightning in midair, the plasma in each blending to cancel the two attacks out. While Akeno's attack hadn't connected, it gave Rias an opening to close the distance with.

Rias flew forward, embedding her claws in Riser's chest, then tearing them out to the sides. She then followed this up with a snap kick, then a claw strike to his abdomen, nearly tearing Riser in half. She lifted her claws came up, as flames blazed around her, and sank them deep into Riser's arms, tearing along the limbs lengthwise to cause massive damage and pain. Riser grit his teeth and sent his power exploding outwards, launching Rias away from him.

Akeno launched a salvo of lightning in retaliation, sending Riser's arm and torso spasming for a few seconds before the arm snapped back up and was promptly sliced to Ribbons by Rias's claws. As Rias engaged, Akeno sent a few bolts of lightning out, pulling chunks of rebar from the school and turning them into a pair of metal barriers, her magic reserves too exhausted to use her more powerful electric ones. A few spare chunks of rebar were converted into railgun strikes, blasting basketball-sized chunks out of Riser, while Rias darted in between the shots, because as everyone knows, you never shoot into melee.

Riser himself countered with massive gouts, spears, and blasts of flame, which either fizzled on armor or were dodged by the two girls engaging him

"THAT IS IT! NOVA FLARE!"

An explosion of white fire erupted from Riser's body, comparable to some of Issei's high power flames. A flame that big would have torn through his energy reserves, and if Rias and Akeno could tank the blast, their victory was guaranteed. As the light once again died down, Akeno tumbled from the sky, chunks of molten iron falling next to her, her defenses having been shattered in that one strike. Rias's armor was smoking a bit, but she was still combat ready. But as Riser became visible, so too was the very _empty_ glass bottle between his lips, his body looking good as new.

"Phoenix Tears.", breathed Rias.

In the background Tiamat called out, "Rias Gremory, one [Queen] eliminated."

Riser shifted his position midair into an attack stance.

"Yes, but unfortunately, that was my last bottle. Now my dear, why don't you show me some of your spirit so I can finish this?"

With a cry of, "I am not your 'dear'!", Rias exploded towards Riser, waves of destruction pouring off her body, and the slugfest I had predicted kicked off.

* * *

Ten minutes of nonstop combat later, the flames around Riser and Rias's Power of Destruction began to flicker and wave. Riser turned to Rias,

"It seems both of us are nearly out of energy, why don't we finish this with one strike?"

Rias set her stance, "I couldn't agree more."

The two [Kings] charged at each other, waves of dust forming behind them, and their voices echoing throughout the arena with their attacks.

Riser's attack took the form of a massive sphere of white-hot fire. Focusing it in his palm, it exploded out into a lance of thermal energy,

"Core of the Sun!"

Rias cocked her leg back, forming a spiral of [Power of Destruction] around it. Launching herself forward, she spun around and extended into a mule kick, her foot surrounded by pointed helix of energy.

"Oblivion Drill!"

The two met with an almighty crash and an explosion of red, white, and black, temporarily obscuring the battlefield. As the dust and light faded, both combatants stood with their backs to the other about thirty feet apart, their aura's fading, to reveal their normal bodies. Rias collapsed to the ground, a massive burn mark appearing on her left side.

A few seconds later, Tiamat teleported her out,

"Rias Gremory, defeated. Riser Phenix is the winner."

As Issei grit his teeth, partially disappointed that he wasn't able to train Rias enough to win this, and partially in anticipation for his upcoming battle, something unexpected happened.

Riser slowly raised his head and looked around.

He gasped out, "Finally. Now I can do this."

Riser fell on his back, his torn shirt falling open to reveal a massive hole in his torso, fully half of his chest obliterated from existence. His regeneration, formerly a proud blaze, was no more than a dim flicker as it worked to keep him alive. And with a flash of blue light, he was sent to get healed himself.

Everyone remained staring, even as the image faded away. About fifteen seconds after that occurred, I spoke up.

"Close but no cigar, looks like we're moving on to plan B."

Issei stood up and walked towards the armory.

"Agreed. You girls ready for this?"

They nodded.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Finally finished this mess, and I apologize for both the delay and the drop in quality. I've been pretty busy with my classes lately and also have a bit of writers block. I'll try to get Issei's duel out as soon as I can, but it'll probably be at least two weeks, if not more.**

 **In other news, I think the quality drop I predicted back in chapter two is finally hitting me, so let's hope my writer's block is only temporary. Worse comes to worst, I'll work on some other fanfic for a few weeks then come back to this.**

 **In still other news, I decided to do a little math and learned something scary. Originally, I had the idea for Issei to use his [Transfer] ability to [Boost] his [Boost] capacity. The funny thing is, that with his current twenty boost cap, he breaks reality. Allow me to explain. At twenty [Boosts] Issei is magnifying his base power by 1048576 times. So you multiply that by his cap, twenty, and get 20971520. This is his new [Boost] cap. When I raise two to that power, my graphing calculator spits out infinity. Wolfram Alpha has a bit more computational power, so we actually get a number of 3.76 times ten to the 6313056. For comparison, if every atom in the observable universe were one of the biggest atoms known to man, element 118, and we annihilated every atom in the universe for energy, we would get a power on the order of ten to the 72. That is 6312984 orders of magnitude less than Isseis's hypothetical power at that level. To compare to other DxD entities, I put Ophis on about the same scale as I put Scion from worm, ten to the 100. Yes that exceeds the energy of the universe, but not as excessively. And before you argue that Ophis is infinite, yes, her power _source_ is infinite, but the amount she can draw from it at any time has a cap, which is that number. Great Red and Trihexa are about that same power, and Issei in this scenario would outclass them by several thousand orders of ****magnitude. So yeah, kinda wanted to throw that out there, I'm definitely not going to use it. Oh, and if you were wondering at what point this technique starts breaking reality, it's anything above five boosts.**

 **Just some food for thought.**

 **As always, please read, rate and review.**


	17. Fried Chicken Combo: The Last Piece

"Just triple checking here, you girls are sure you're ok with this?"

Valerie rolled her eyes, "Yes Issei, for the hundredth time, we're with you on this. Even the newbies believe in you. Now go and save Rias. I'm going to go and check on Gasper again and make sure that blue-haired skank isn't trying anything."

Issei stood in his room, a piece of paper held in his hands with a magic circle inscribed on it. After Rias lost the Rating Game, Valerie had dragged us all to the healing facility to check on Gasper. When we got there, we were greeted by Sona's peerage, who were busy checking up on their fellow devils. Apparently, Rias had requested that if she were to be unable to be there when her wounded woke up, Sona be there instead. Indeed, most of Rias's peerage was heavily sedated to accelerate the healing process, but by the time we managed to message Sona and gain the pass for the local wards, they were waking up.

The 'blue-haired skank' comment had come about as an unusual reaction resulting from a mixture of various factors. The first of which being the grime that had covered Gasper from the fight, along with some blood splatter from producing a complex fracture two feet from his face. The second was Gasper's innate cuteness, compounded by his semi-shell-shocked state on waking, which Valerie was quick to begin calming him down from. So, take a dirty and teary Gasper, his biokinetic sister figure already on site to help him, and then combine that with Sona's rook, Tsubasa. Interesting fact about her, she has an attraction for guys who actually get dirty when they fight, reason for this unknown, but it certainly applied, as while devil magic had healed Gasper's wounds, they had yet to give him a proper bath, and his white-blond hair only made the dirt stand out more. So, mix something that turns the girl on, Gasper's innate cuteness, nearly on par with Asia's, and Valerie's superhuman senses, and you get one hell, pun semi-intended, of an awkward situation. At least Tsubasa was subtle about it, but as far as I could tell, it appears that Gasper has an admirer now. Good, it would be rude of Issei to hog all the girls for himself after all, we were just going to attract most of them, then I would ship the remainder to be polite.

With the rest of the peerage coming out of recovery without incident, thanks in large part to Valerie and Asia, Issei headed home to find a teleportation circle on his bed, along with a time for the wedding. Looks like Rias was able to inform Sirzechs about our backup plan without incident. I had been a bit worried about that when we learned that Rias had been moved to a different hospital so that way she could be taken directly to the wedding preparations, but everything seemed to be set up.

Anyways, back to the present.

"Alright, I'll see you girls in a bit, after I show that birdbrain exactly what he insulted earlier."

And in a flash of light, Issei stood in front of a pair of ornately carved doors, the guards around him snapping into positions to attack.

Issei looked them over.

"I have no quarrel with any of you, and for those of you who serve the house of Gremory, I mean no harm to those you guard. My only foe is Riser Phenix, and I only intend to beat him, not to assassinate him. I suggest you stand down."

One of the Gremory guards leveled his spear.

"Young man, I wish I could let you try whatever you intend to do, but I am under contract to defend the party to the best of my ability against all who seek to enter uninvited, and we devils keep our word."

Issei nodded.

"As you wish. Dazzling Blaze."

Baseball-sized spheres of fire flew outwards from Issei, detonating on impact with the guards and blasting them into the walls, knocking them unconscious.

'Alright Solus, Ddraig, let's crash a wedding.'

Deploying his gauntlet, Issei drew his fist back and slammed it into the doors, blasting them off their hinges and sending them flying into the room.

He cast another set of spells, "Solidify Air. Talons."

Before they could continue and slam into someone, the doors impacted a wall of air and were subsequently shredded into dust by razor wind.

Issei strode into the room, a smirk on his face.

"Sirzechs! What is the meaning of this?!"

SIrzechs turned to the speaker, who I suspected was either Riser's older brother or Lord Phenix, and smiled.

"It's nothing, I just figured the wedding guests would like some entertainment before the main event, and I figured a duel between two masters of flame, a dragon and a Phoenix, would be perfect for it."

Riser took this moment to speak up.

"Why do you think you can just waltz in here, and demand to fight Riser right now? We should all kill you for your impudence."

"But I do have the right to challenge you, observe."

With that Issei summoned up his recording of his previous encounter with Riser, including his various actions displaying his playboy nature, and most importantly, his declaration that he would face Issei at whatever time Issei decided.

*SMACK!*

Issei turned to see Lord Phenix with his hand plastered to his face.

"Riser, you dumbass."

Issei gave a gentle smile, "So yeah, I'm claiming my right to duel you right now. So how about we wager a little on the outcome, no? After all, it wasn't exactly for shits and giggles that I decided to claim my right to a duel right now."

Lord Phenix turned to us, "And what makes you so sure you will win this? This is an important day for the Phenix clan, and I will not have our time wasted by some overconfident upstart."

Issei closed his eyes and held his arms out, palms up.

"Nine to the Third. Release."

Nine rings formed in the air, two around each of Issei's arms, one around each of his ankles, two around his torso, and one vertically behind his body. Each ring had another set of nine rings arranged around the circumference, with a third set of nine rings arranged around the perimeter of each of those nine rings, for a total of 729 rings. According to Ddraig, and some of the [Boosted Gear's] more magically inclined users, certain numbers and their multiples were exceptionally powerful for certain wielders. In Issei's case, it was multiples of three, but not six. Hence, Nine to the Third was the sealing technique we used, nine seals in sets of nine, with nine sets of those sets of nine.

Issei's next words shook the earth with their power as his hair waved in an unseen breeze. When he opened his eyes, they were glowing emerald.

"I trust this display will prove sufficient?"

Riser grit out, "What. Do you want?"

The glow and energy receded, revealing Issei's smiling face. "If I win, you will renounce all claim you have on the hand of Rias Gremory, and will never ask for it again. The wedding gets called off and she gets to decide her own marriage."

He raised his eyebrow, "And if Riser wins?"

"Well, you're wagering the future of your clan, so I'll wager the future of mine. If you win, you have claim to myself and all those I command. Kill me, make your personal servant, whatever. And that not only applies to me, but also to the members of the [Party] you saw in that video."

Rias clasped her hands over her mouth, "Issei!"

"Rias, my life is mine to do with as I please, and I made sure to check with everyone else on this. We are all willing to risk this to help you."

The Phenix groom smirked, "Very well! Riser accepts your challenge!"

* * *

A short time later, we had all arrived at the arena, Issei and Riser entering to get prepared, while the other guests set up their spells for observation.

Issei entered through the gate and called across the battlefield, "Alright, as of right now we have a one vs. one duel with whatever we have on us. Any last-minute corrections, weapon restrictions, or whatnot you would like to request? No take backs."

Riser smiled, "No. What could you possibly have that would make any difference before Riser's power?"

Excellent, the arrogance is back in full force.

* **SMACK***

The arena shook as a good chunk of the observing devils joined Riser's family in facepalming.

Lord Phenix groaned once more, "Riser, the Dragon, no, Issei made that comment because he has something that would. And if what that video showed is accurate, I can guess what it is. I know you're not stupid, how are you fucking up this badly?"

I interjected, "Because while he's intelligent, he is completely devoid of common sense in matters regarding females?"

The air temperature ratcheted up a few degrees, as small flames flickered around Riser.

With a quick, "Leash your pest worm" directed to us, Riser turned to his parents, "come on father, it's not like he has holy weap…"

The lightbulb seemed to turn on and Riser turned his head towards a smirking Issei.

"You bastard."

Issei's smirk developed into a full-on vulpine grin.

"Yeah, Asia used to be a member of the church, and she still has some of her old stuff lying around the base. I've got a flask of holy water in my back pocket. To be honest, I'm going to give you a fighting chance and hold it in reserve, but it's nice to have options. Let's get going, shall we, wouldn't want to hold off on your beat down, now would we?"

Both combatants strode out into the battlefield, taking their ready stances, all pre-battle banter now ceasing.

Rias stood to the side, as the battle that would decide her future unfolded before her.

Tiamat's voice echoed, "Begin!"

Riser opened the fight with a massive fireball, which splattered harmlessly against an air shield Issei threw up.

Riser exploded into the heavens, gouts of flames forming from his hands to wash across the arena, melting the ground below them to lava, as Issei ducked right to dodge.

A second fireball from the airborne Riser engulfed the battlefield lighting the whole mess up. But when the flames cleared, they revealed Issei, still perfectly unharmed, the remains of a barrier fading around him.

"You're still up? Well then, I suppose I should thank you. If you did indeed teach Rias that new move of hers I have you to thank for the hidden power I was able to unlock from observing it."

With that, Riser summoned his flames once more, but this tiome they were different. While the red components of the flames remained the same, this time the yellow had changed to a brilliant gold. These shiny flames then solidified them into his own suit of armor and set of twin blades. Based on the stance he took up, his body facing Issei, it appeared he was trying for a more aggressive stance, exposing more of his body to us in the hopes he could overpower Issei's defenses before he ran out of energy. It was actually pretty smart. Issei couldn't counter his regeneration without his holy water, which Riser knew was in Issei's back pocket and would take time to draw. As such, Riser could currently afford the loss in defense from his new stance, and if Issei shifted to counter with holy water, he would normally have had time to shift his stance to something more defensible. Unfortunately, Issei's speed was much higher than he assumed, so it would have done jack, but it's the thought that counts. As I mentioned earlier, Riser _is_ a smart guy, he just gets really stupid and arrogant around girls.

Anyways, back to the actual fight. Engulfed in his armor of flames, Riser shot down towards Issei, twin blades drawn into a x-shape in front of him.

With a massive blast, Riser struck, an X of fire zooming forward to crash into Issei's guard. Issei's hand shot to the bundle on his back, slamming it into the path of the flames. Issei was soon hidden from view by an explosion from Riser's attack, but as the Phenix spun to cut with both his swords, they clanged against a crimson pillar. Concerned by this development, Riser hopped back to reassess the situation, as the flames from his prior attack spiraled inwards. As they dissipated, they revealed Issei, [Boosted Gear] deployed.

[Boost!]

"So at least one part of your tale is true, you really are the Red Dragon Emperor, too bad you are no match for my regeneration."

"We shall see."

With that, the fighters resumed their duel, twin crescents of flame flowing from Riser's blades, and Issei meeting every strike in turn.

A spin strike from Riser to attack with both blades? They clanged against the crimson gauntlet.

[Boost!]

A stab with a follow up slash? Issei sidestepped the former, then bent at the knees to place his back parallel with the ground to duck under the second.

[Boost!]

These and more were launched and every strike was countered, with Riser becoming more and more sloppy with every strike. Not from exhaustion, but from the fact that Issei refused to go on the offensive. All the while, Issei's [Boosts] continued to build.

As the adrenalin levels in both competitors continued to rise, more of Riser's common sense was thrown out the window for bluster.

"Is that all you can do worm? Block my onslaught? I'll wear you down in no time flat!"

Emboldened, Riser slammed his swords together, forming them into one great sword, which he brought around in a massive arc to cleave Issei in half.

When the blade was about to hit him, Issei spoke up, "Ok, I'll attack."

*Clang!*

Riser's sword stopped, gripped in Issei's gauntleted fist as a small blast of air rushed towards Riser.

"Is that all? Merely stopping my…"

[Boost!]

A small nick opened up on Riser's check, his regeneration rapidly healing it. On the edge of Issei's gauntleted pointer finger, a single drop of blood glistened, before evaporating from the flames of Riser's sword.

I piped up, "Try and last a bit, ok? Issei needs some practice"

[Boost!]

"Cram it you pest. Oh Fuck!"

That latter exclamation resulted from Issei digging his fingers into the flames and yanking, solidifying the fire in such a way that he was able to yank Riser's arms forward and execute his favorite maneuver. Issei's fist crashed into Riser's elbows, shattering the bones within, then he pulled his fist back and sent a second punch into Riser's stomach.

With a sickening tearing noise, Riser's body shot across the arena, while his arms, still stuck to the sword thanks to some clever air and fire manipulation by Issei, tore in half at the elbows in a spray of blood.

[Boost!]

As Riser flew away, Issei tore after him. He had experience with this sort of fight before, as his earliest training was against my unlimited regeneration in the mindscape. As Riser staggered back, his arms regenerating, Issei dropped and spun, sweeping Riser's legs out from under him, before following with an uppercut that caved Riser's face in and sent him up into the sky.

Riser snapped his wings out and began gathering his flames, only for Issei, fists wreathed in flames, to appear right in front of him. Carving through Riser's fire like it wasn't there, Issei's right leg scythed around to slam into Riser's face, melting his cheek, a slight 'tug' on Issei's magic the only evidence of Riser attempting to counteract the flame spell. As Issei finished the turn for his kick he lashed out in a follow-up punch, then moved to press the attack, slamming blows into Riser's torso, the flesh beneath bubbling from the heat of the flames. The fists weren't in contact long enough to char, but rather resulted in a process similar to cauterization.

His arms having finally, regenerated, Riser Shot his fist at Issei's cheek, to which Issei responded with a cross counter, his own fist flying at Riser's face. At the last second, a small magic circle appeared on Issei's cheek, and a barrier of wind formed, deflecting Riser's strike, but allowing Issei's attack to carry through and hit Riser.

Spiraling away, Riser had barely enough time to right himself once more, before an axe kick from Issei sent him shooting towards the ground.

As Riser smashed into the floor of the arena, Issei reached behind himself, about to grab the holy water, but then stopped and grinned, the adrenaline in his system acting overriding a lot of his conscious thought. He summoned his flames once more and called out,

"Hey Riser! You said you were a master of flames! Try these on for size! **Flames of Ddraig!** "

The flames around Issei's hands shifted colors, their original orange and yellow replaced with crimson and emerald.

'Alright Ddraig, hit it.'

"[Explosion]!"

The flames blazed brighter as power flowed into Issei from his [Boosted Gear], lighting up the battlefield brighter than Riser had at any point prior. Issei spun in the air, rotating his body before launching himself back towards the ground. Twin jets of flame erupted from his wings, rocketing him towards the ground even faster than before.

Issei let loose with one of his more dangerous techniques, "Final Strike! _True Flame Fire Orb_!"

Smashing into the ground like a meteor, Issei crashed his blazing fist directly into Riser's crotch, detonating the spell into an explosion of fire hot enough to penetrate his own defenses. Fire Orb was a flame spell of almost unrivaled power, surpassed only by a few others in Issei's arsenal, but the drawback was that the wielder often took recoil damage due to how close they were to the explosion and its unique concussive aspect. Combine that with the fact that Issei was wielding Ddraig's original flames, and Riser was fucked.

The initial blast was honestly quite small for all the power Issei had put into it, but soon, Ddraig's flames burned true. Heat erupted as the four square inches of contact with Issei's fist became sixteen, then 256, then still onwards to engulf Riser's body. Issei focused his energy, making sure to keep the flames away from Riser's vitals, but doing nothing else. Within seconds, Riser's regeneration was completely spent, and Issei dismissed the flames, revealing the sorry state Riser was in. His limbs had been reduced to charcoal, and the only part of him that weren't baked to ash was his torso, which slowly rose and fell as Riser breathed through an ash-covered throat. Without prompt medical attention, death was a possibility, and it was only due to devil durability that it was not a certainty.

"Winner, Issei Hyoudou", Tiamat announced, with no small amount of fear.

Issei slowly stepped back from the K.O.'ed Riser and pulled up a communication spell.

"Valerie, would you…Oh good you already saw, yeah I'll get you here ASAP."

Ddraig grunted alound, "Why are you bothering to heal him? Why didn't you just kill this bastard, he insulted us enough to justify it in my opinion."

A high-pitched voice screamed out from the stands, as a blonde torpedo shot past us.

"No, don't hurt my big brother!"

Issei turned to Ravel, who stood in front of her brother on shaky legs, ready to fight us.

Issei's voice softened, "Because, Ddraig, as cruel as he is to us, his family does care for him, and I have no quarrel with them. You can relax, Ravel, was it? The duel is over and I have no intention of letting your brother die by action or inaction."

"Then why are you preventing him from teleporting out? He'll die here if he doesn't!"

"He's not going to. Tiamat knows I'm bringing in my own healer who can patch him up faster. Devil healing magic is good, but he needs faster healing than they could provide if he doesn't want scarring. Luckily, Valerie's one of the best around and can patch him up in seconds. He'll be back on his feet and whining in no time."

With a flash of light and the sound of shattering glass, Valerie was there, having used Issei as a transponder to aim her teleportation. She wandered over to Riser, gently pushing Ravel out of the way and poking Riser's shoulder. Within seconds, Riser's wounds were gone, his charred limbs were whole again, and Valerie were rising to her feet.

"Alright he's all patched up, you going to be ok Issei?"

"Yeah, I need to work on getting my anger in check though, he definitely didn't deserve _all_ that."

Ravel just stared at us with a mixture of horror, confusion and awe.

"Why did you do this to us?"

"Mixture of Riser insulting me, his treatment of women in general, Rias being my friend, and more adrenalin than blood in my veins towards the end. Really sorry about how overkill that was, I think for a moment there I was pulsing the flames on his nerve endings just to make it worse. But it should be out of my system by now."

Valerie rolled her eyes, "Well, I'm headed to check on Gasper again, I'll see you at home Issei."

"Thank you, Valerie, see you soon."

As Valerie teleported out, we were distracted by a moan from Riser.

"Oooooowwww.", he groaned as he sat up, only to be tackled back to the ground by Ravel.

"Riser!"

The sight of Ravel fussing over her older brother served to help distract everyone involved for a minute, giving me a few seconds to think. While Riser was a bit of a prick, from what I recalled, his harem members did have affection for him, and Ravel was very connected with him. If I wanted Ravel to join the harem as she did in canon, making sure the Phenixes and Issei's [Party] were on amicable terms was the intelligent decision. As such I once more opened my mouth.

"I apologize for the interruption, but do you have a minute? I'd like to prevent any further incidents, and I think you need some advice in case this sort of thing nearly happens again. You and Issei actually have a fair bit in common and I'd like to help clear the air a bit after this."

Riser looked towards us, a expression of fear crossing his face, before something behind us caught his attention, and he gave us a nervous smile. "Actually, neither of us do."

With those words, he and Ravel teleported out, a faint odor of urine scenting the air.

"Wait, wha…"

"ISSEI!"

*thud*

'Hello floor, it's nice to make your acquaintance. Wait, what are these soft things on the back of my neck… Oh.'

Much as Riser had been moments before, Rias had tackled us to the ground and had smashed Issei into her chest.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, …"

Issei peeled himself off the floor of the arena and turned to smile at her,

"Rias calm down, I told you I would get you out of this mess, and I did. This was just me keeping my word."

I added on, "Besides, you aren't going to be thanking me tomorrow."

"Why's that?"

"Every [King] in the underworld with space open in their peerage is going to be fighting tooth and nail to muscle in on Kuoh and recruit me. While I'm sure your brother will be quite willing to help keep some of the pressure off, you're going to have a mountain of paperwork to fill out tomorrow."

"Let me be angry at him tomorrow, for now, Issei follow me, my brother set us up for some transit home."

* * *

True to canon, Sirzechs had set up a gryphon to take us back to Kuoh, where we landed outside Issei's house, Issei letting the transport through his wards with little effort. The house was oddly quiet as we walked in the front door, Issei's enhanced hearing picking up snoring from most of the bedrooms. A quick survey of the rooms revealed Valerie and Raynare asleep on their own beds, still in their day clothes. They likely fell asleep after the match ended, the adrenalin crash of watching Issei fight for Rias's freedom, with his and their own on the line likely a bit too much for them. Asia we found asleep in Issei's desk chair and from the looks of things, she had been waiting up for us to come home, but fallen asleep in the meantime. Turning around, Issei beheld Rias stripping out of her dress, her skin gleaming in what moonlight came through the blinds. Issei just stood there dumbly.

Rias coyly spoke, "I believe it is time for our dragon to claim his maiden, as is his just reward. Is it not?"

"The dragon thinks that the maiden should not offer herself so freely, when she knows so little about the dragon. Nevertheless, the dragon will accept the reward halfway. Ok, I'm stopping that right there. Look Rias, if you want to spend the night it's fine, but there is more

I'm going to have to tell you about in the morning, concerning that goal I gave to Solus all those years ago."

She smirked, "It's a harem, isn't it?"

"Or you could just figure it out on your own."

"Relax Issei, I'm not mad. You actually see your lovers as people, and care for them almost obsessively, don't you?"

"Yeah, it's something I picked up even before meeting Solus. If one member of my harem were sad, then that sadness would spread to the rest of the harem, and then to me, making me sad. Therefore, my job is to make sure everyone is happy, first and foremost."

"And that's why I want this, but, since you like to take things slow, we won't have sex, we'll just spend the night together."

"Alright, just let me take care of a few things."

That night Issei happily fell asleep with his head cushioned on Rias's chest, her crimson locks brushing against his hands.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Done! And just in time for Christmas. Happy holidays to all of you.**

 **As always, please read, rate and review.**


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